Postharvest research in Belgium

The non-profit organisation Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology (VCBT) has been established in 1997 as a collaborative project between the Association of Belgian Fruit and Vegetable Auctions and the Catholic University ??of Leuven. Its mission is to provide technological advise and extension related to storage technology and quality of fruit and vegetables to producers and co-operatives. Since 2004 the VCBT is officially recognised as experimental station. The Director of the VLAM is the recognized postharvest researcher Bart Nicola?. The 2013 Annual Report (Jaarverslag), available since some months, informs about the activities and research lines, it includes English summaries, included in the text available below, "Flanders Centre of Postharvest Technology, Annual Report 2013, English texts".? The original report, including all the mentioned tables and figures, is available HERE. Summary of services and research lines: - Consultancy service- Harvest date prediction of apple and pears- Prediction of optimal picking date for individual pear and apple orchards based on NIR- Optimal storage conditions for new pome fruit cultivars - Assessment of the commercialisation date of apple and pear cultivars - Tomato segmentation research- Supportive segmentation research- A fast and non-destructive determination of the freshness of lamb?s lettuce- The taste of chicory- Automatic analysis of the 3-D microstructure of pome fruit tissue based on X-ray micro-CT - Browning in apple: an ?omics? approach- Monitoring and prediction of product quality in the distribution chain- Optimisation of packaging for horticultural produce- Extending and optimizing quality systems- Moisture loss and deformation of fruit - Calculation of dust dispersion during sowing of treated seeds- A 3D microscale model for CO2 gas diffusion in tomato leaves during photosynthesis- Determining bruise damage with an electronic fruit- A mathematical model of the ethylene production of apple- Microscale Water Transport model in fruits tissues - Spray cloud in the picture- Modeling postharvest treatments with biological control agents- Metabolic adaptations to low oxygen. ?