There are various aspects that must be considered when drying small fruits, whether for the food or nutraceutical and functional food industries. Fruits with a waxy skin, such as blueberries (Vaccinium myrtillus L.), cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.), and cherry tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) are the focus of this discussion. These fruits have each been implicated to offer heal...

The availability of rapid and accurate methods to assess fruit flavor is of utmost importance to support quality control especially in the breeding phase. Breeders need more information and analytical tools to facilitate selection for complex multigenic traits such as flavor quality. In this study, it is shown that proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) is a suitable method to moni...

A glucosyltransferase was isolated from immature “cherry” tomatoes and was partially purified (200-fold) by ammonium sulphate precipitation and successive chromatography on Sephadex G-100 and DEAE-cellulose columns. The enzyme utilised the free hydroxycinnamic acids and UDP-glucose in the formation of their respective glucosides (pH 8.0) and glucose esters (pH 7.0); but did not accept the CoA t...

In the present study, the effectiveness of two loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays was evaluated. Samples of romaine lettuce, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, green onions and sour berries were inoculated with known dilutions (100-108 CFU/g of produce) of S. Enteritidis and L. monocytogenes. With LAMP, assay pathogens can be detected in less than 60 min. The limits of detection o...

Considering the economic importance of the tomato and its nutritional benefits to human health, a study was made of how two different environmental factors (temperature and overall solar radiation) influence the nutritional quality of cherry tomatoes during the plant full production cycle. Solanum lycopersicum L. cv. Naomi plants were grown in an experimental greenhouse. Three fruit samples wer...