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To help lower prices and help pears last longer, Virginia Tech researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are investigating how fresh pears change during storage and how this information can be used to minimize food safety risks over time.
“The fruit industry uses a method that slows down the natural ripening process of pears so that consumers can have fresh pears year-round and help consumers stay within their budget,” said Alexis Hamilton, co-principal researcher on the project. Professor of Food Processing Microbiology in the Department of Food Science and Technology and Virginia Cooperative Extension Specialist. “It’s a great way to grow and market this product year-round.”
With a two-year grant of $335,000 from the Center for Produce Safety, Virginia Tech researchers in collaboration with the University of Georgia will investigate different storage methods to reduce spoilage and food safety issues associated with long-term storage of popular tree nuts.
“Anyone who puts a product in the fridge knows that it will eventually go bad,” Hamilton said. “This project will help us understand how current industry practices affect spoilage and food safety concerns so that we can provide practical recommendations to the industry to further delay spoilage without increasing food safety risks. We hope these recommendations can be extended to other tree nuts.”
This study helps consumers and producers by reducing prices and reducing overall losses.
Hamilton previously worked with apples in Washington state with the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission, studying how this long-term storage environment affects the safety of fresh apples.
“We’ve learned some really interesting things about how spoilage issues affect food safety concerns over time,” she says. “We hope to implement this request and add measures to reduce other pea storage risks.”
Currently, the pills are wrapped in paper in boxes or stored in bulk storage for up to a year.
The researchers, including Laura Strahn, an associate professor in the department and the project’s principal investigator, will first look at microbial communities on the surface of pears and study how the communities change in the storage environment. Then, the top three key players are identified and tested against foodborne pathogens.
“The application of metagenomic approaches offers exciting opportunities to fill knowledge gaps and improve food safety and quality,” Strawn said. “Understanding microbial communities may reveal new synergistic or antagonistic interactions between pathogenic organisms and pathogens.”
Cost-effective tips are provided for tree fruit growers.
“These producers can make small changes to manage their crops to have a better yield at the end of the year,” Hamilton said.
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