The Effect of Concentration of Beeswax Emulsion on Shelf Life and Quality of Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) during Room Temperature Storage

Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) is one of the horticultural products that have the potential for development in Indonesia. beetroot contains a high level of betalain and vitamin C, so it can be an antioxidant for cancer. But nowadays, post-harvest handling is not specially noticed by people yet. The aims of this research were to determine the effect of beeswax coating on shelf life and quality of the beetroot and determine the best wax emulsion concentration as beetroot coating. This research was conducted at the Posharvesting Handling Laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture and Business, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga. The method used Randomized Block Design with 4 treatments and 6 replications. The concentration of beeswax emulsions used in this research is about 4%, 8%, and 12%. The observed parameter was weight loss, respiration, total dissolved solids, water content, and vitamin C. The results show that the treatment with a concentration of 12% of beeswax emulsion is the best result when compared with other treatments. The result also shows the concentration of 12% beeswax emulsion can maintain the storage time and quality of the beetroot.

Sr isotope ratio in vegetable crops and apple trees depends on that of the soil environment while is unaffected by the genotype

The 87Sr/86Sr ratio is an effective geographical tracer for horticultural products. In plants this ratio reflects closely the characteristics of the growing area. However, information about the variability of this parameter when measured in different plant species or cultivars is still scarce. In this work, we have tested the hypothesis that, when plants are growing in the same environment, their 87Sr/86Sr ratio is independent from the plant species or cultivar. For this, four to six vegetable species were collected from two fields in different locations in South Tyrol (Italy), together with the corresponding soils. Additionally, within a single apple orchard located in the same area, apple leaves were collected from trees of five cultivars. The 87Sr/86Sr ratio was measured applying an established and validated method. In general, vegetable species growing in the same field had similar 87Sr/86Sr ratios and showed a lower variability compared to their corresponding soils, while a significant difference was found comparing the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of the two vegetable fields. Apple leaves sampled from different tree cultivars also did not show a significant difference in their 87Sr/86Sr ratio. We concluded that the 87Sr/86Sr ratio in vegetables and apple trees was affected by the soil, but not significantly by the type of species or cultivar. Therefore, within limited areas, the results of the 87Sr/86Sr ratio analysis based on samples of a certain species/cultivar can be extended to other similar plants growing in the same site.

Potential of Vegetable E-Commerce for Empowering Farmers in Indonesia

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the flow of horticultural products from farmers to consumers. It causes the delivery of vegetables to be hampered, especially in Jabodetabek, which is the center of vegetable consumption. Therefore, a new marketing strategy is needed involving e-commerce to meet people's need for vegetables. This study discusses the buying behavior of vegetables through e-commerce in Jabodetabek and analyzes the role of e-commerce platforms to empower farmers in Indonesia. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with two data sources, primary data obtained from questionnaires filled out by 153 respondents and secondary data obtained from literature studies. The results showed that 50.33 percent of respondents prefer to shop for vegetables through e-commerce, and 51.63 percent think online vegetable shopping services are better than offline or conventional shopping. The majority of people choose to buy vegetables online through e-commerce because of concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 virus. However, vegetable purchasing behavior is still in the introduction stage. E-commerce plays a role in making it easier for people to get the needs of quality vegetables at competitive prices. Empowering farmers to produce high-quality products is very important in increasing consumer repurchase intentions and improving the welfare of farmers in Indonesia.

Mortality of Fruit Flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) Exposed to Spinetoram Toxic Bait in the Laboratory

Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) cause significant losses during the production and marketing of horticultural products. Brazilian growers usually adopt full-coverage insecticide spraying to control fruit flies, but toxic bait is a more strategic technique, because reach efficacy and the target surface is the foliage and branches. We provide information regarding the toxicity of spinetoram bait to two fruit fly species in the laboratory as an alternative to organophosphates and the specific spinosad formulation. We tested toxic baits in the laboratory, using commercial hydrolysed corn protein (10% v/v) plus 90 g, 120 g, 150 g and 180 g dilutions of spinetoram 250 WG (commercial product/1,000 litres of water). All toxic baits were compared with an untreated control (only protein) for the adults of females and males of Anastrepha obliqua (Macquart, 1835) and Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann, 1824) up to 30 hours of exposure. Dry food for adults was included in all dilutions (5% w/v). In addition, we tested the residual effect of toxic baits applied to the leaves of mandarin seedlings. We used the same treatments of the earlier bioassay without dry food, collecting treated leaves and exposing them to C. capitata (medfly) females for 24 hours in the laboratory. Leaves were collected 1, 3, 7, 15 and 30 days after application. Overall, medfly adults were more susceptible to spinetoram baits than A. obliqua. All toxic baits resulted in 100% C. capitata mortality 24 hours after initial exposure, and the toxic bait at 150 g/1,000 L of water resulted in the maximum mortality (96%) in A. obliqua. Except for 90 g of spinetoram bait at 30 days after application, all spinetoram bait concentrations resulted in significantly, more dead C. capitata females than the control over all tested periods in the residual bioassay. At 30 days after application, spinetoram baits at 120 g, 150 g and 180 g resulted in 85%, 87% and 86% mortality in C. capitata, respectively. Spinetoram toxic baits have proven promising for long-term fruit fly management.

Non-Invasive Methods for Predicting the Quality of Processed Horticultural Food Products, with Emphasis on Dried Powders, Juices and Oils: A Review

This review covers recent developments in the field of non-invasive techniques for the quality assessment of processed horticultural products over the past decade. The concept of quality and various quality characteristics related to evaluating processed horticultural products are detailed. A brief overview of non-invasive methods, including spectroscopic techniques, nuclear magnetic resonance, and hyperspectral imaging techniques, is presented. This review highlights their application to predict quality attributes of different processed horticultural products (e.g., powders, juices, and oils). A concise summary of their potential commercial application for quality assessment, control, and monitoring of processed agricultural products is provided. Finally, we discuss their limitations and highlight other emerging non-invasive techniques applicable for monitoring and evaluating the quality attributes of processed horticultural products. Our findings suggest that infrared spectroscopy (both near and mid) has been the preferred choice for the non-invasive assessment of processed horticultural products, such as juices, oils, and powders, and can be adapted for on-line quality control. Raman spectroscopy has shown potential in the analysis of powdered products. However, imaging techniques, such as hyperspectral imaging and X-ray computed tomography, require improvement on data acquisition, processing times, and reduction in the cost and size of the devices so that they can be adopted for on-line measurements at processing facilities. Overall, this review suggests that non-invasive techniques have the potential for industrial application and can be used for quality assessment.

Measurement of Heat Transfer and Flow Resistance for a Packed Bed of Horticultural Products with the Implementation of a Single Blow Technique

This paper provides the practical implementation of the single blow technique as an effective approach of average convective heat transfer coefficient measurement for a packed bed of horticultural products. The measurement approach was positively validated for the case of a packed bed of balls. The presented results cover heat transfer coefficient results for carrots stored in packed beds for two various arrangements (regular and irregular) and bed of apples under conditions of various turbulent intensity at the inlet to the bed. The turbulent intensity (defined as the ratio of the root mean square of the turbulent fluctuation of the air velocity to the mean air velocity) varied from 0.02 to 0.14. The applied velocity ranges for the tests refers to the conventional storage conditions. The heat transfer correlations were proposed based on the obtained results for each arrangement. It was demonstrated that due to flow laminarization inside the bed, the turbulence intensity has no significant effect on heat transfer inside the bed. Heat transfer enhancement of up to 25% was demonstrated for the case of the irregular carrot arrangement in the tested bed. The flow resistance correlations were additionally proposed for the tested beds. It was demonstrated that the product arrangement does not produce an important effect on the pressure drop.

PENGARUH PENERAPAN OZON DARI DOUBLE DIELECTRIC BARIER DISCHARGE PLASMA UNTUK MENJAGA KESEGARAN JAMUR TIRAM PUTIH (PLEUROTUS OSTREATUS )

ABSTRAKJamur tiram putih (Pleurotus ostreatus) merupakan salah satu produk makanan yang mudah mengalami kerusakan dan mempunyai waktu simpan pendek yaitu 1-2 hari. Produksi jamur tiram di Indonesia semakin tahun mengalami peningkatan sehingga dibutuhkan alternatif dalam menjaga umur simpan pada jamur. Salah satu teknologi yang masih terus berkembang adalah teknologi plasma ozon. Teknologi ini menggunakan plasma dingin untuk menghasilkan ozon (O3). Baru-baru ini, beberapa peneliti telah mengembangkan teknologi ozon untuk mejaga umur simpan pada produk pasca panen hortikultura. Penelitian bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh penyimpanan jamur tiram putih (Pleurotus ostreatus) dengan teknologi plasma ozon yang dibangkitkan dengan teknik Double Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma (DDBDP). Hasil kosentrasi ozon pada penelitian ini yaitu 65 ppm dengan kapasitas ozon sebesar 5.85 gram/jam pada flowrate 1.5 (L/min) dan tegangan 9,5 kV. Ozon dialirkan ke dalam plastik yang berisi sampel jamur pada perlakuan (5, 10, 15, 20 dan 25) menit. Berdasarkan hasil uji perubahan susut yang dilakukan, diperoleh perubahan susut tidak terlalu significant mengalami penurunan pada perlakuan ozone 20 menit dan 25 menit. Kata kunci: Jamur tiram; ozone; Double Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma; produk hortikultura ABSTRACTWhite oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) is a food product that is easily damaged and has a short shelf life of 1-2 days. The production of oyster mushrooms in Indonesia is increasing every year so that an alternative is needed to maintain the shelf life of mushrooms. One technology that is still developing is plasma ozone technology. This technology uses cold plasma to produce ozone (O3). Recently, several researchers have developed ozone technology to maintain shelf life in post-harvest horticultural products. This study aims to determine the effect of storing white oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) with ozone plasma technology generated by the Double Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma (DDBDP) technique. The results of the ozone concentration in this study were 65 ppm with an ozone capacity of 5.85 grams/hour at a flowrate of 1.5 (L/min) and a voltage of 9.5 Kv. Ozone was flowed into a plastic containing mushroom samples in the treatment (5,10,15, 20 and 25) minutes. Based on the results of the shrinkage change test carried out, it was found that the shrinkage change was not too significant and decreased in the 20 minute and 25 minute ozone treatment Keywords: Oyster mushroom; ozone; Double Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma; horticultural products.

Decision Support System in Dynamic Pricing of Horticultural Products Based on the Quality Decline Due to Bacterial Growth

A decision support system (DSS) was developed to help reduce food waste at traditional food retailers while selling fresh horticultural products, but also to promote food safety and quality. This computational tool includes two major functions: (1) the prediction of the remaining shelf life of fresh horticultural product, namely lettuce, onion, carrot, and cabbage based on its microbial growth status, governed by extrinsic and intrinsic parameters (temperature, water activity and pH, respectively). The remaining shelf life of the studied horticultural products is determined by using the online predictive food microbiology tool— the Combined Database for Predictive Microbiology (Combase). The time to reach the infectious doses of bacteria considered in the study for each of the four horticultural products are predicted; (2) the calculation of the dynamic price of the produce that should be set each day, depending on the predicted end of the marketing period to increase the demand and potential for sale to the final consumer. The proposed dynamic pricing model assumes a linear relation with the remaining shelf life of the analyzed vegetable to set the selling price. The shelf life determined by the DSS for optimal storage conditions is, in general, conservative, ensuring food safety. The automatic dynamic pricing gives new opportunities to small retailers to manage their business, fostering profit and simultaneously contributing to reduce food waste. Thus, this decision support system can contribute to the sustainable value of reducing food waste by providing information to small grocers and retailers on the safety of their perishable status depending on storage conditions and allowing them to suggest a fair price depending on that quality.