Actual knowledge to maintain the quality of raspberries in post harvest

The consumer perception of quality and freshness of perishable fruits such as raspberries can be strongly influenced by the postharvest technology. Today the retailer channels mainly affect the competitiveness of the producers in the modern market scenario, so the quality of fruits is strongly affected by the quality and efficiency of storage and logistics system during all the supply chain. It?s clear how the innovation in the management of the availability / freshness is one of the key issues of the future of this sector not only for the marketing and distribution system but also for the economy. In the post harvest raspberry supply chain the main innovations in the management of quality of perishable berries can be adopted at different levels (fig.1). According to the current social and economic scenario the driver of the innovation and the key point to improve the performance of all preserving techniques is the sustainability requirement to satisfy the competitiveness? asset of the supply chain. The improvement of berries and particularly of the raspberries management in the post harvest can be performed choosing green practices to improve the energy efficiency and to reduce the food waste during the storage in the picking house, during the transport and also at the retailer point. During the storage the raspberries are regulary managed without washing processes, so, more than other species, they require efficient sanification tools in the management of the supply chain. Exposition of fruit to ionization (Fruit Control Equipments, Italy) and ozonitation (Biofresh, Northumberland) technique in the cold room could maintain nutrients and the main qualitative traits when compared to untreated berries. The ionization for example doesn?t alter the colour of the raspberries whose change is mainly due to the storage time and the ozonitation instead could improve the marketability of the fruits when they are maintained in shelf life conditions to the highest temperatures along all the supply chain (Giuggioli et al., 2015). The effectiviness of the adopted technique is affected by different factors such as the commodity (cultivar, maturity and quality at harvest), the environmental storage condition (temperature and atmosphere gas composition) and the way of application of the technology (quantity of ions and/or O3 used, intermittent or constant flushing). The use of standard procedures to sanify the product could represent a good solution to ensure safety fresh products with high qualitative standard before the packaging procedure after the time storage. The recycling and the reduction of packaging materials, the waste disposal and the use of bio-packaging that use biopolymers from a renewable raw materials could be a promising alternative in the packaging sector of berries. The substitution of the most commonly used packaging material such as the polyethylene terephthalate (PET), for marketing berries with PLA? baskets and Mater-Bi? film could be then an interesting alternatives to the plastic materials derived from fossil fuel to reduce the environmental impacts (Girgenti et al., 2013, Briano et al., 2015). Preliminary study have showed the good sucess of these new ?green material? for flexible packaging to storage fruits but their different hydrophilic characteristics from traditional materials represent a critical point especially when the storage temperature shifts and it?s outside of the cold range requested by berries. To analyse the different components of the impacts associated with the berries production and the eco friendly strategy adopted in the postharvest supply chain a life cycle assesment analysis (LCA) could support all the step of the small fruit production. The development of a brand in fact could be a good approach to best comunicate to the distribution channels (supermarkets) and to the end consumers the differentiation and the added value of fruits made according to a sustainable approach.FigureSustainable innovation in the post harvest of raspberry fruits ReferencesBriano R., Giuggioli N. R., Girgenti V., Peano C. (2015). Biodegradable and Compostable Film and Modified Atmosphere Packaging in Postharvest Supply Chain of Raspberry Fruits (cv. Grandeur?). Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 39: 2061-2073. Giuggioli N.R., Briano R., Girgenti V., Peano C. Quality Effect of Ozone Treatment for the Red Raspberries Storage. Frutic Italy 2015 - 9th Fruit, Nut and Vegetable Production Engineering Symposium, May 19-22,2015. Rho Milan. Chemical Engineering Transactions 44:25-30. Girgenti V., Peano C., Bounous M., Baudino, C. (2013). A life cycle assessment of non-renewable energy use and greenhouse gas emission associated with blueberry and raspberry production in northern Italy. Sci. Total Environ., 458?460, 415?418. ?More informationNicole Giuggioli, PhDResearch fellowDepartment of Agricultural, Forest and Food SciencesUniverity of TurinLargo Paolo Braccini 2,10095 Grugliasco (TO), Italynicole.giuggioli@unito.itoffice +39 011 6708646?