Impact of transportation, storage, and retail shelf conditions on lettuce quality and phytonutrients losses in the supply chain

Abstract

This study was initiated to investigate the impact of transportation, storage, and retail shelf conditions on lettuce quality and phytonutrients losses in the urban fresh produce market supply chain. Reducing postharvest losses is a priority to reduce the loss of the dietary‐based phytonutrients and to improve the health of the consumers. Limited information is available in South Africa related to the postharvest and nutrition loss in the urban fresh produce market supply chain. In this study, we quantified the postharvest losses, changes in phytochemicals, and loss of minerals in lettuce at different points of Tshwane Fresh Produce Market supply chain. Lettuce supply to the Tshwane Fresh Produce Market from two different provinces, Gauteng and North West, were included in this study for comparison. Lettuce from the two provinces was collected from five different farms. The loss of fresh weight, changes in visual quality, phytonutrition properties, and economic loss of lettuce at the supply chain points: (a) transport; (b) storage; (c) and at the retail shelf was investigated. Five boxes of lettuce per supply chain point from Gauteng and North West provinces were randomly selected. The results indicated that the high temperature (25°C) and low RH (40%) at the retail shelf affected the weight, overall quality, and phytonutrition properties of lettuce. Cumulative economic loss was higher at the retail shelf due to the inferior quality of lettuce. The study identified where major quality and phytonutrition losses occur during marketing. The study demonstrated to identify the where major food and nutritional loss losses occur during marketing. This information will significantly benefit food sustainability by introducing technologies to manage food and nutrition losses.

Real-Time Monitoring System for Shelf Life Estimation of Fruit and Vegetables

“…Lettuce stored at higher temperatures resulted in greater weight loss. However, moderate weight loss was observed for all storage temperatures compared to Managa et al [49], who reported 45.31% weight loss in Iceberg lettuce stored for 3 days at room temperature. According to Manolopoulou et al [50], this may be due to the high relative humidity generated around the head of lettuce when they are bagged.…”

Amaranth’s 2-Caffeoylisocitric Acid—An Anti-Inflammatory Caffeic Acid Derivative That Impairs NF-κB Signaling in LPS-Challenged RAW 264.7 Macrophages

“…Moreover, it was confirmed that CAPE develops cytotoxic effects in concentrations ≥10 µM [14,15,16]. For the investigation of the anti-inflammatory effects of CA, CQA, and C-IA, a concentration of 10 µM was found to be ideal, since these concentrations are physiologically relevant as they are reachable by a 200 g serving of either crisp head lettuce or amaranth [4,9]. Furthermore, CA and C-IA showed recovery rates of 100% and 75% after 4 h incubation, which indicates a decent stability for further experiments.…”

“…Chlorogenic acid (3-caffeoylquinic acid, CQA), a related compound that is not found in amaranth leaves, but is widely distributed in other plants, also contains caffeic acid (CA) as a phenolic moiety. CQA has been shown to possess numerous biological properties, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-carcinogenic activities [5,6,7,8,9]. Previous studies showed that the biotransformation of CQA and C-IA by the gut microbiome is comparable and that both compounds can be partially resorbed by the human organism [10,11,12].…”

İyi̇ Ve Yanliş Hasat Sonrasi Uygulamalarin Marul Ve Domates Tedari̇k Zi̇nci̇rleri̇nde Yaşanan Kayiplar Üzeri̇ne Etki̇si̇

“…However, in real supply chain conditions, factors other than temperature and relative humidity, such as mechanical injuries, microbial contamination, can also negatively affect the quality of the fresh produces which can cause an increase in product losses. Only in a few studies, the postharvest losses were quantified in real supply chain conditions in which the main objective was to quantify the postharvest losses for a specific commodity and country (Gogo et al, 2017;Managa et al, 2018;Rediers et al, 2009). However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has been carried out yet which aimed at comparing the postharvest losses in supply chains with good and poor handling practices.…”