Fw: Packaging Keeps Cut Produce Fresh

**"Doreen Howard" g*@charter.net**

This forward is in response to Debbie Leung's query about food scientists. 
The USDA is always helpful, and if the people named in the article cannot 
help you, they will find an expert for you.  Use the link near the bottom to 
go to the entire article online.  It should contain emails and phone numbers 
of people to contact.
Doreen Howard
---------------------------------------------------------- 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "ARS News Service" <NewsService@ars.usda.gov>
To: "ARS News subscriber" <gardendiva@charter.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 7:02 AM
Subject: Packaging Keeps Cut Produce Fresh


> STORY LEAD:
> High-Tech Packaging Keeps Cut Produce Fresh
> ___________________________________________
>
> ARS News Service
> Agricultural Research Service, USDA
> Rosalie Marion Bliss, (301) 504-4318, rbliss@ars.usda.gov
> July 6, 2006
> --View this report online, plus any included photos or other images, at 
> www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr
> ___________________________________________
>
> An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist has identified specific 
> packaging wraps, called films, which provide several fruit and vegetable 
> varieties with a long shelf life.  Food technologist Yaguang Luo, with the 
> ARS Produce Quality and Safety Laboratory (PQSL), Beltsville, Md., led the 
> project.  The technology she used is known as "modified atmosphere 
> packaging," or MAP.
>
> Fresh-cut fruit and vegetable varieties are still alive, and each respires 
> at its own unique rate.  Therefore, a film's permeability and the amount 
> of oxygen initially infused into a package are key.
>
> Manufacturers have produced hundreds of different types of films, and each 
> type has its own oxygen transmission rate, which allows sliced produce to 
> continue breathing throughout storage and distribution.  If a film's 
> oxygen transmission rate is too high for the variety it's wrapping, the 
> product inside will brown; if it's too low, the product will prematurely 
> decay.
>
> Luo's research findings led to developing a balance of oxygen and carbon 
> dioxide inside select packages that permits a particular fresh-cut produce 
> variety to respire slowly and stay fresh for the longest possible time.
>
> For example, fresh-cut cilantro--a leafy culinary herb that's a popular 
> flavor component of tomato salsa--has a high respiration rate that makes 
> storage a challenge.  Leaf yellowing, dehydration and loss of aroma can 
> set in quickly after cutting.  The packaging film Luo has identified for 
> wrapping cilantro provides a 14-day shelf life.  So the cilantro has 
> plenty of time to be plucked from the grocery shelf and chopped to enliven 
> a fresh batch of salsa.
>
> Using similar advanced packaging technologies, Luo has been able to 
> prolong the shelf life of romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce, carrots and 
> salad savoy, a nutritious new vegetable crop that is a close relative to 
> kale and cabbage.
>
> Read more about this research in the July 2006 issue of Agricultural 
> Research magazine, available online at: 
> http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul06/produce0706.htm.
>
> ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research 
> agency.
>
>
> ___________________________________________
>
> * This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to 
> subscribers on weekdays.
> * Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at 
> www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
> * NewsService@ars.usda.gov | www.ars.usda.gov/news
> * Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1486
> 

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