Innovative approaches to improve quality and safety of fresh minimally-processed fruit and vegetables

Fresh minimally-processed fruit and vegetables are constituted by living cell tissue, rapidly metabolizing, especially when peeled and cut in portions for higher convenience. For this reason quality attributes (i.e., appearance, texture, flavor, and nutritional value) degrade very fast and shelf life is often a matter of days or, in some cases, of weeks. On the other hand the preparation process does not include a so-called “killing step”, or a treatment which determines a negligible final microbial count. In fact for this kind of product freshness itself is a limit which does not allow the application of eradicating treatments. A number of priorities are on top of the list of the fresh-cut industry which may have a direct influence on consumers. Safety of course, not only in relation to microbial contamination but also related to other possible issues (i.e., chemical contamination and possible presence of animal parasites), and also quality, more and more referring to nutritional value and taste and flavor. These two main objectives are often associated to the extension of the shelf-life. Finally for a food industry with a very intense use of water, plastic, and energy kg-1 of final product, sustainability of the whole chain represents another important issue in order to reduce the impact on the environment and, last but not least, on production costs. For all these reasons fresh minimally-processed produce represents a very interesting food system where the need of improvements is of paramount importance. In the last few years R&D strategies have been diverse ranging from the proteomic approach to nanotechnology, including non-destructive tools, predictive models and green-chemistry applications to develop important innovations in processing, packaging, and logistic. Some of these approaches will be discussed through some of the results of two large multi-partner R&D projects (i.e., QUAFETY co-funded by European Commission, and OFRALSER co-funded by Italy’s government) which have focused on fresh minimally-processed fruit and vegetables, with a multi-disciplinary approach and a particular attention to dissemination of results.