Premium fruit: a through-chain approach to providing consumers with fruit that is consistently good to eat
R. Soderlund
Program and Abstract. 2007 Australasian Postharvest Conference. Crowne Plaza Terrigal, NSW, Australia. 12 September 2007. 87 p.
2007
บทคัดย่อ
Field run stone fruit picked from orchards and delivered to packing sheds looks fairly uniform but are actually highly variable. They are especially variable in relation to their sugar content and firmness. As the fruit moves down the supply chain, this variability translates to a large spread in the eating quality of the fruit consumers purchase.
Some fruits are soft and ready to eat such that retailers (or overseas importers) become concerned that the fruits retail shelf life will be reduced. Some fruit are so green that they will never ripen. This paper describes a series of in-chain control points that have been used to improve the consistency of the eating quality of fruit delivered to consumers. They include commercially-feasible orchard, packing shed and cool chain practices. A proposed retail experiment to test the sales impact of consistently better eating quality is also described.