Comsumers currently pay twice as much for some organic products with short shelf-life being one of the major contributing factors [that and greed, Ed.]
Conventional produce can be treated to aid preservation, but so-called organic produce cannot be treated in this way, as by definition no artificial chemicals can be used during processing.
`With some organic fruit and veg, there can be large losses [during storage],’ Claudia Ruane, spokes person for Abel & Cole organic produce retailers told C&I. Ruane explained that although many organic farms do have reasonably sophisticated refrigeration units, there are very expensive and used only for brief storage before collection. `These are important and costly but if paying out for these facilities can ensure a whole crop is not rejected by a retailer because it is a little limp or dehydrated, then it is a cost that has to be absorbed,’ she said.
Edna Pesis and her team at the Volcani Center, Israel, have devised what they expect to be an effective and cheap technique to keep apples in cold storage for longer. A simple week long pre-treatment with low levels of oxygen at 20ºC was shown to prevent scald formation – a type of chilling injury associated with prolonged cold storage. Pesis said that 90% of the treated apples were `saved from the scald problem in addition to other physiological diseases,’ after eight months of cold storage.
Pesis says that the technique can be tweaked for use with avocados, tomatoes and other organic produce.
More information can be found in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.