Quality assurance systems in the production and marketing of fresh peaches.

Due to the fast rate of peach post-harvest ripening, damage due to mechanical handling, externally appreciated as bruises and soft areas, is a real problem that leads to an early harvesting and poor quality of the fruits, as perceived by the consumers. More and more, the European consumer asks for good taste and freshness of fruits and vegetables, and these quality factors are not included in standards, nor in most of the producers' practices. Fruit processing and marketing centres (co-operatives) are increasingly interested in adopting quality controls in their processes. ISO 9000 procedures are being applied in some food areas, primarily milk and meat processors, but no generalised procedures have been developed until the present time to be applied to fresh product processes. All different peach and nectarine varieties that are harvested and handled in Murcia cooperatives and sold in a large supermarket in Madrid were analysed during the whole 1997 season (early May to late August). A total number of 78 samples of 25 fruits (co-operative) or 10 fruits (market), were tested in the laboratory for mechanical, optical, chemical and tasting quality. The variability and relationships between all these quality parameters are presented and discussed, and sampling unit sizes which would be advisable for quality control are calculated.

Analysis and Quality Control from ARIMA Modeling

In this paper, we use ARIMA modelling to estimate a set of characteristics of a short-term indicator (for example, the index of industrial production), as trends, seasonal variations, cyclical oscillations, unpredictability, deterministic effects (as a strike), etc. Thus for each sector and product (more than 1000), we construct a vector of values corresponding to the above-mentioned characteristics, that can be used for data editing.

Glycerin and lecithin inclusion in diets for brown egg-layinghens: Effects on egg production and nutrient digestibility

The effects of the inclusion of raw glycerin (GLYC) and lecithin in the diet on egg production,egg quality and total tract apparent retention (TTAR) of dietary components was studied inbrown egg-laying hens from 23 to 51 wk of age. The experimental design was completelyrandomized with six diets combined as a 2 × 3 factorial with two levels of GLYC (0 vs.70 g/kg) and three animal fat to lecithin ratios (40:0, 20:20 and 0:40 g/kg). Each treatmentwas replicated eight times and the experimental unit was a cage with ten hens. Productionwas recorded by replicate every 28-d period and cumulatively. For the entire experiment,the inclusion of GLYC in the diet hindered feed conversion ratio per kilogram of eggs (2.071vs. 2.039; P < 0.05) but did not affect any of the other production or egg quality traits studied.The replacement of animal fat by lecithin (40:0, 20:20 and 0:40 g/kg) increased egg weight(60.1, 60.7 and 61.8 g, respectively; P < 0.001) and egg mass production (56.8, 57.5 and58.8 g/d, respectively; P < 0.01) and improved yolk color as measured by the DSM colorfan (9.2, 9.2 and 9.5, respectively; P < 0.001) and feed conversion ratio per kilogram of eggs(2.072, 2.068 and 2.027, respectively; P < 0.05). Feed intake, egg production and body weightgain, however, were not affected. The inclusion of GLYC in the diet did not affect nutrientretention but lecithin inclusion improved TTAR of dry matter (P < 0.05), organic matter(P < 0.05), ether extract (P < 0.001) and gross energy (P < 0.001). In summary, the inclusionof 70 g glycerol/kg diet hindered feed conversion ratio per kilogram of eggs but did notaffect any other production or digestibility trait. The replacement of animal fat by lecithinimproved egg weight, egg yolk color and nutrient digestibility. Consequently, lecithin canbe used as a lipid source in laying hen diets with beneficial effects on egg production