0000000000658461
AUTHOR
Vincenzo Girgenti
Effect of Palletized Map Storage on the Quality and Nutritional Compounds of the Japanese Plum cv. Angeleno (Prunus salicina Lindl.)
The influence of active modified atmosphere packaging MAP (10.0 kPa of O2 and 5 kPa of CO2) on palletized system was evaluated to extend the marketability of fresh plums cv. Angeleno. Fruits were wrapped with a polyethylene film in pallet bag units at 1C and 90% relative humidity for up to 60 days. The gas values of the pallet bags, the fruit weight losses and their qualitative and nutraceutical characteristics were periodically monitored to evaluate the goodness of storage. The results showed as the pallet bag have maintained the market life of Angeleno plums to up to 60 days, preserving the most important qualitative traits of fruits. After 20, 40 and 60 days the MAP treatment maintained …
THE ROLE OF DIVERSITY AND DIVERSIFICATION FOR RESILIENT AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
Biodiversity is a unique and precious heritage: generic but also cultural, social and economic. Its drastic curtailment, however, puts at risk the survival of local farming systems, and this is even more so in fragile socio-economic contexts where it risks translating into conditions of food insecurity and poverty. From the elementary level of the gene, rising in complexity up to the ecosystem, it is therefore a central element in defining first the resistance and then the resilience of the system, and by the first term meaning the degree of resistance to a disruption that distances it from the initial state of equilibrium and by the second the capacity of a system to return to guaranteeing…
Improvement of plum storage with modified atmosphere packaging
Post-harvest supply chain is a critical point for agro-food marketing. The management of freshness in the storage is fundamental to maintain high profits in the agro-food sector to improve the distribution and to respond to retailers and consumers' requirements. Plums are considered to have a climacteric-ripening pattern, in which ethylene is the hormone responsible for ripening. Modified atmosphere (MA) storage is a method helpful to maintain the natural quality of fruits. MA added to low temperatures influence fruit metabolism and reduce ethylene production, weight losses, hardness of pulp, preserving vitamins and organic acids. The objective of this study was to increase the condition of…
BIODIVERSITY OF SICILIAN FRUIT TREES: STUDIES ON PLUMS
The Sicilian territory contains a wide reserve of biodiversity of fruit tree species that, over a period of several centuries, have found there propitious pedoclimatic conditions for their establishment, and genetic diversification. The indigenous germplasm characterized Sicilian agriculture until less than one century ago but, after the diffusion of new cultivars originating from genetic improvement programs, a great part of this germplasm was replaced and now these important resources are at high risk of genetic erosion. Recently, public interest in the safeguarding of biodiversity and the development of a new interest in genetic resources and their scientific, economic and cultural impor…
Dietary Patterns at the Individual Level through a Nutritional and Environmental Approach: The Case Study of a School Canteen
The public catering sector has important responsibilities in seeking a change toward more sustainable choices for many aspects related to the environmental impacts of their services. The environmental impact of production processes can be studied through life cycle assessment (LCA), which allows a greater awareness of choices and has rarely been applied to catering. In this work, we studied the impacts of two dishes (braised meat and cauliflower meatballs) in a school canteen, their impacts were studied using the daily energy requirement (expressed in kcal) as a functional unit. Global warming potential (GWP) and nonrenewable energy (NRE) were calculated starting from the supply of raw mate…
Evolution of qualitative characteristics during blueberry fruit storage in a modified atmosphere
The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of different films to maintain MAP conditions for storing ‘Duke’ blueberries by verifying the evolution of qualitative traits of berries. The fruits were picked manually, individually deposited in polyethylene baskets and immediately transferred (1 h) to the laboratory under chilled conditions (10°C). The experimental storage units consisted of a pallet bag of two different types of film, polyethylene (100 μm) and a biobased film derived from starch (50 μm). The O2 and CO2 transmission rates, measured according to the ASTM F 2622-08 and ASTM F 2476-05 methods at 38°C and 90% RH, were, 2642 and 10654 [cm3/(m2·24 h)], respectively, fo…
Evaluating the Sustainability in Complex Agri-Food Systems: The SAEMETH Framework
During the last few years, the definition of sustainability and the translation of its general principles into practical and operative tasks have come into the foreground of scientific research and political agendas throughout the world. The understanding and the evaluation of the environmental, social and economic performances of complex agricultural food systems is probably the real challenge, and the design of more sustainable alternatives has been recognized as necessary for a correct territorial management. This study’s primary goal is the proposition of an interpretive structure “Sustainable Agri-Food Evaluation Methodology” (SAEMETH), able to guide the evaluation of the sustainabilit…
An interpretive framework for assessing and monitoring the sustainability of school gardens
School gardens are, increasingly, an integral part of projects aiming to promote nutritional education and environmental sustainability in many countries throughout the world. In the late 1950s, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) had already developed projects to improve the dietary intake and behavior through school and community gardens. However, notwithstanding decades of experience, real proof of how these programs contribute to improving sustainability has not been well-documented, and reported findings have mostly been anecdotal. Therefore, it is important to begin a process of collecting and monitoring data to quantify the results and …