Three days of full immersion on fresh-cut products with lectures, discussion, networking, and social events. A nicely assorted group of 84, from 15 countries, with different backgrounds and interests, but all determined to learn more about how to deliver better quality and safe high-convenience fresh fruit and vegetables.
The 8th edition of the European short-course on “Quality & Safety of Fresh-cut Produce” held within Macfrut 2016 exhibition, successfully drew to a close last Friday with a fruitful, multispeaker discussion on future research needs, both from industry and academia points of view. The Course was organized by the University of Foggia, in cooperation with Macfrut, DARe-Puglia, and AIIPA-IV gamma.
“We make every edition different because we update topics and speakers” say Prof. Giancarlo Colelli, University of Foggia, Italy, convener of the event, “but every year I realize that participants, with their feedback and their contribution to discussion, make every edition of the short-course unique, and thus most interesting”.
This year more time was dedicated to management of cultural practice and to their influence on final quality and safety of the produce. In addition the following new topics were introduced to the Course: management of washing water, logistics of fresh-cut produce, prediction of shelf life through different approaches, influence of volatiles on sensorial quality. On the other hand, in continuity with other editions, the course covered all aspects related to safety (including sanitation procedures), to processing, and to equipments, with specific presentations on handling and process considerations for most important type of fresh-cut products (i.e. leafy vegetables, roots and tubers, fruits, fruit vegetables, and some specialty crops).
“Beyond representing a great chance for innovation transfer, our objective in this type of events is also to create a European network of representatives from industry and academia”, continues Colelli, “from different countries, different expertise, and different roles within their respective affiliations, with a potential of synergistic cooperation both on business development and on triggering new R&D programs”.
The European short-course on Quality and Safety of Fresh-cut Produce was initiated in Bari (Italy) in 2007, and since then it has been held in Cordoba and Almeria (Spain), Mesagne (Italy), Berlin (Germany), Antalya (Turkey), and Cardiff (UK). So far the Course has attracted more than 700 participants, from more than 50 countries, very well assorted with roughly 50% processors, 30%suppliers, 15% students, 5% others.