admission. This proportion could already be greater in some parts of the country and may increase if referrals of cases of self-poisoning increase faster than the facilities for their assessment and management. The provision of social work and psychiatric expertise in casualty departments may be one means of preventing unnecessary medical admissions without risk to the patients. Dr Blake's and Dr Bramble's figures do not demonstrate, however, that any advantage would attach to medical teams taking over assessment from psychiatrists except that, by implication, assessments would be completed sooner by staff working on the ward full time. What the figures actually suggest is that if assessment of overdoses were left to house doctors there would be an increase in admissions to psychiatric units (by 19°U), outpatients (by 5O°'), and referrals to social services (by 140o). So for house doctors to assess overdoses would provide no economy for the psychiatric or social services. The study does not tell us what the consequences would have been for the six patients who the psychiatrists would have admitted but to whom the house doctors would have offered outpatient appointments. E J SALTER

Vitamin D deficiency.

The State of Food and Agriculture

The color, flavor, texture, and the nutritional value of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable products are factors critical to consumer acceptance and the success of these products. In this chapter, desirable and undesirable quality attributes of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable products are reviewed. Both instrumental and sensory measurements for determining these critical quality attributes are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of sensory and instrumental quality measurements are described. A review of typical unit operations involved in the production of fresh-cut products is presented. The effects of fresh-cut processing techniques and treatments on sensory quality, including the appearance, texture, flavor (taste and aroma) of vegetables, and fruits are detailed.

/pdf/color-flavor-texture-and-nutritional-quality-of-fresh-cut-4peev5sav8.pdf

Color, Flavor, Texture, and Nutritional Quality of Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables: Desirable Levels, Instrumental and Sensory Measurement, and the Effects of Processing

Minimally processed products are one of the major growing segments in food retail establishments. However, fresh-cut fruits are still under study because of the difficulties in preserving their fresh-like quality during prolonged periods. This paper intends to review the most significant contributions regarding preservation of fresh-cut fruits without a significant modification of its sensorial properties and provides an overview about the last published advances. It covers aspects concerning conditions suggested by authors in each one of the processing steps such as washing, sanitation, cutting, dipping treatments and/or preservation under modified atmospheres, as well as those works studying the influence of these operations on the shelf life and quality extension of fresh-cut fruit products without modification of their sensorial properties.

New advances in extending the shelf-life of fresh-cut fruits: a review.

Colour is the first quality attribute of food evaluated by consumers, and is therefore an important component of food quality relevant to market acceptance. Rapid and objective measurement of food colour is required in quality control for the commercial grading of products. Computer vision is a promising technique currently investigated for food colour measurement, especially with the ability of providing a detailed characterization of colour uniformity at pixel-based level. This paper reviews the fundamentals and applications of computer vision for food colour measurement. Introduction of colour space and traditional colour measurements is also given. At last, advantages and disadvantages of computer vision for colour measurement are analyzed and its future trends are proposed.

Colour measurements by computer vision for food quality control – A review

Shelf life of minimally processed apple (cv. Jonagored) determined by colour changes

Characterization of polyphenoloxidase (ppo) extracted from jonagored apple

Food safety practices in a Portuguese canteen

Phenolic content, polyphenoloxidase (PPO) activity and browning have been reported by different authors to vary in different ways, depending on cultivar, picking maturity, storage conditions, etc. Numerous authors have attempted to correlate browning results with the phenolic content andlor enzymatic activity of apples, but data published in the literature are divergent as to which of the two factors, ie the enzyme or the substrate, plays the decisive role in the overall phenomenon of enzymatic browning. The aim of this work was to follow the PPO activity and phenolic content of minimally processed apple (cv 'Jonagored') during cold storage and to establish a potential relationship with enzymatic browning. Increasing storage time of minimally processed apple seemed to result in an increase in PPO activity. No changes (P > 0.05) in total phenolic content were observed during storage. Colour degradation of apple cubes, as indicated by changes in colour parameters, was found to be highly correlated with PPO activity. Browning of 'Jonagored' apple cubes during storage was found to be moderately correlated with PPO activity. No correlation was found between the browning index and the total phenolic content. Le niveau d'activite de la polyphenoloxydase a la recolte et sa variation pendant l'entreposage du fruit sont importants pour predire le brunissement. Le sujet de cette etude est de suivre l'activite PPO et la teneur en composes phenoliques de pomme peu transformee pendant un entreposage refrigere et d'etablir une relation avec le brunissement enzymatique. En augmentant le temps de stockage, l'activite PPO semble augmenter. Aucun changement dans les composes phenoliques n'est observe pendant le stockage. Les resultats montrent que la degradation de la couleur de cubes de pomme est correlee avec l'activite PPO. Aucune correlation n'est trouvee entre le brunissement et la teneur en composes phenoliques totaux.

/pdf/polyphenoloxidase-activity-and-total-phenolic-content-as-11ucpwrzay.pdf

Polyphenoloxidase activity and total phenolic content as related to browning of minimally processed ‘Jonagored’ apple

The quality of a new variety of apple, 'Jonagored', after peeling and cutting was evaluated during ten days of storage in air at 4C. The objective was to evaluate the shelf-life of apple cubes by detecting the limiting parameter and to test the influence of different chemical dips on the cut apple quality with the aim of extending shelf-life. Color, i. e. browning at the cut surface, was found to be the critical quality parameter determining the shelf-life of the cut apple to less than three days. There were no significant differences between the dip treatments in measurements of CIE values. When apple cubes were treated with ascorbic acid, ascorbic acid plus calcium chloride or ascorbic acid plus calcium chloride and citric acid, the 0.75% ascorbic acid dip was found to be the most effective preservation treatment in terms of reducing color change of the cut surface. Both 0.75% ascorbic acid and 0.75% ascorbic acid plus 0.75% calcium chloride inhibited the loss of firmness of apple cubes. When citric acid was added to the dip treatment, there were color changes similar to those of the control.

/pdf/influence-of-chemical-treatment-on-quality-of-cut-apple-cv-39u9yuhvze.pdf

Ada Rocha

Papers

Shelf life of minimally processed apple (cv. Jonagored) determined by colour changes

Characterization of polyphenoloxidase (ppo) extracted from jonagored apple

Food safety practices in a Portuguese canteen

Polyphenoloxidase activity and total phenolic content as related to browning of minimally processed ‘Jonagored’ apple

INFLUENCE OF CHEMICAL TREATMENT ON QUALITY OF CUT APPLE (cv. JONAGORED)