Mechanical damage to fruit causes flavor changes during post-harvest supply chains. It is important to identify the main volatiles and explore their biosynthesis mechanism. In this study, the volatile changes in apples caused by mechanical damage were analyzed by gas chromatography−ion mobility spectrometry. Hexanal and ethyl acetate were accumulated and identified as potential volatile biomarkers to detect damaged apples. The study on the lipoxygenase (LOX) pathway and transcription factors (TFs) shows that mechanical damage up-regulated the expression of MdLOX-like,
Strawberries are susceptible to mechanical damage. The detection of damaged strawberries by their volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can avoid the deficiencies of manual observation and spectral imaging technologies that cannot detect packaged fruits. In the present study, the detection of strawberries with impact damage is investigated using electronic nose (e-nose) technology. The results show that the e-nose technology can be used to detect strawberries that have suffered impact damage. The best model for detecting the extent of impact damage had a residual predictive deviation (RPD) value of 2.730, and the correct rate of the best model for identifying the damaged strawberries was 97.5%. However, the accuracy of the prediction of the occurrence time of impact was poor, and the RPD value of the best model was only 1.969. In addition, the gas chromatography–mass spectrophotometry analysis further shows that the VOCs of the strawberries changed after suffering impact damage, which was the reason why the e-nose technology could detect the damaged fruit. The above results show that the mechanical force of impact caused changes in the VOCs of strawberries and that it is possible to detect strawberries that have suffered impact damage using e-nose technology.
Hongmeiren is a high-quality orange fruit but susceptible to mechanical damage. This work proposes a new packaging format (Packaging C), which used the plastic partition boards to separate the folding plastic basket to avoid the fruits from crushing each other, and used a PU foam layer and placed it along the inside of the EPE foam layer to meet the different sizes of fruits. The results show that under both 3 and 10 h of simulated transportation, Packaging C achieved a much lower damage and decay rates than Packaging A (plastic bulk containers), and this was further verified by the road transportation. Besides, Packaging C could avoid dents in the peel of some large fruits compared to the gift packaging (Packaging B). Although the use of inner packaging could increase the use of packaging, it can reduce the waste of cultivation and transportation resources caused by not being able to deliver the fruit to the consumer, as well as environmental pollution caused by fruit decay. Moreover, low temperature (10 °C) and high humidity (90% RH) during transportation could further reduce the damage and packages at the rear position obtained a higher damage rate than at the front position, but no obvious difference was found between stack heights.
HighlightsMathematical modeling has been increasingly used to calculate damage to fruit Cell and molecular mechanisms response to fruit damage is an under-explored area Susceptibility measurement of different mechanical forces has received attention Customized design of reusable and biodegradable packaging is a hot topic of research
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