Refrigeration for Preserving the Quality and Enhancing the Safety of Plant Foods

Prof. Francisco Artés is an agricultural engineer (UPV, Valencia) and refrigeration engineer (IFFI, Paris). He is Director of the Plant Biotechnology Institute (since 2001), Professor of Food Technology and Head of the Postharvest and Refrigeration Group (PRG) at the Department of Food Engineering of the Technical University of Cartagena. He was Director (1992-1994) of CEBAS (Centre for Applied Biology)-CSIC (High Council for Scientific Research) in Murcia (Spain). His 300-plus publications cover many aspects of plant food metabolic behaviour, quality control, handling, cold storage, controlled and modified atmosphere, packaging techniques, alternative physical postharvest treatments and minimal fresh processing. Francisco Artés has been an IIR commission member since 1971, serving as Vice-President (1996-1999) then President of Commission C2, Food science and engineering (1999-2003). He is currently Vice-President and a founding member of the Spanish Society of Refrigeration Science and Technology, Honorary Member of the IIR and corresponding member of the Académie d’Agriculture de France. PRG organized a very successful IIR conference entitled Improving Postharvest Technologies of Fruits, Vegetables and Ornamentals in 2000 (for the proceedings CD-ROM, contact: www.iifiir.org). PRG carries out a very wide range of research and industrial consultancy on the cold chain and postharvest equipment for plant food, and particularly for minimally fresh processed fruit and vegetables. More details of its activities can be found on www.upct.es