tradicionalmenteinovador - Brazil Buyers & Sellers

Stage by stage
>> IAC specialists identify the causes of the post-harvest
losses and show the wayout of the problem
Vegetables are subject to significant
after-harvest losses, which start in the
field and continue all the way along
the chain, including packing-houses,
supply centers, wholesale stores, retail
outlets and consumers. Juliana Sanches,
researcher for the Automation and
Engineering Center at the Agronomic
Institute of Campinas (IAC) explains
what these losses are all about. “A loss
is the part of the crop that is not destined
for consumption, by virtue of the
depreciation of the quality, caused by
a deterioration process, crushing, cuts,
rot and other factors”, she observes.
For the most part, waste is produced
by poor handling, improper packaging
or transportation, the lack of refrigeration,
ignorance about the harvest and
post-harvest handling practices, sales
in bulk and excessive handling by final
buyers, as well as by the accumulation
of products on the supermarket
display shelves or deficiencies in the
wholesale posts.
Post-harvest losses, explains Juliana
Sanches, are split into physiological,
mechanical injury and phytopathological.
“Physiological losses in vegetables
occur due to such problems
as respiration, transpiration, ripening
and senescence, but they could also be
induced by excessively warm or cold
temperatures and low relative humidity”,
she notes. “Mechanically-induced
losses occur all the way along the productive
chain, while phytopathological
damages are caused by outbreaks
of micro-organisms at pre or post harvest
time”.
At the Fruit, Vegetables and Ornamental
Plant Post-Harvest Laboratory,
run by the IAC Automation and Engineering
Center, inaugurated in July
2009, the studies involve post-harvest
conservation techniques and vegetable
grading operations. The crops undergoing
studies are as follows: beet,
potato, okra, broccolis, ruccula babyleaf,
lettuce, watercress, strawberry,
green corn and tomato.
Inor Ag. Assmann
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