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Responsible for the topic: 
Dr. Werner
B. Herppich (
Dept.
6)
Team: Dr. Martin Geyer
(Dept. 6),
Dr. Klaus Gottschalk (Dept. 3), Dr. Karin Hassenberg
(Dept. 2), Dr. Bernd Herold
(Dept. 6), Dr. Thomas Hoffmann
(Dept. 3), Manfred Linke
(Dept. 6), Dr. Matthias Plöchl
(Dept. 2), Dr. Oliver Schlüter
(Dept. 6), Ingo Truppel (Dept. 6), Dr. habil. Manuela Zude
(Dept. 6)
Product-oriented
quality criteria
Postharvest handling of fresh fruit and vegetables is
very difficult. After harvest these hortic ultural
products are still living and physiologically active,
they may continue ripening and they are often extremely
perishable. During the entire postharvest chain they are
often exposed to a multitude of chemical, biological,
mechanical and climatic hazards and stresses. Exact
knowledge of their specific physiological
characteristics is an essential prerequisite to
efficiently improve yet existing or develop new methods
and procedures for a better preservation of a high
produce postharvest quality and to ensure best produce
safety. Competent knowledge of the interactions between
physiological, biochemical and physical produce
properties is indispensable for the definition of
objective quality criteria, for the
development and
adaptation of sensors used to rapidly, cost-effectively
and non-destructively determine and control product
quality. Exact knowledge of the physiological produce
properties facilitates the
characterisation and
quantification of physiological changes due to the
various postharvest stresses as well as the definition
of thresholds for the reaction to environmental
influences during harvest, processing, in wholesale and
retail.
The aim of this research topic is to characterise the
respective fundamental physiological, biochemical and
physical produce properties that are relevant for
product quality and safety. The results obtained will be
available to scientific research but also to producers,
wholesalers and retailers, consultants and consumers.
Concerning methods and approaches, a broad spectrum of
established and innovative methods is used to
characterise a multitude of quality and safety relevant
produce properties (water relations, mechanical and
optical properties, spectral analysis, chlorophyll
fluorescence analysis, gas exchange etc.): Development
and adaptation of new and optimized measurement methods
to detect quality and safety relevant produce properties
(micro spectrometer, laser induced fluorescence
spectroscopy, chlorophyll fluorescence image analysis
etc.) Quantification of physiological product changes
and definition of thresholds for the produce responses
to environmental effects during the entire postharvest
chain Development, adaptation and optimisation of sensor
systems for a rapid, cost-effective and non-destructive
analysis of produce quality (Acoustic-impulse-response-technique,
remote micro spectrometer etc) Development and
adaptation of models (e.g. heat flow, substance flow, …) Research
structure (overview)
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