Quantitative evaluation of mechanical damage to fresh fruits

Fresh fruits are very susceptible to mechanical damage during harvesting, packaging and transport, which can result in a substantial reduction in quality. Ideally, such damage would be minimized through improved understanding of the mechanisms. If damage occurs, economic losses might be minimized by grading affected fruits, based on the severity of damage, into those that need more than minimal further processing and those that do not. In either case, an objective and quantitative evaluation of the degree of mechanical damage is required. However, this is still far from being realized and remains an important challenge of past and proposed research in food safety. This review concerns the quantitative evaluation of mechanical damage to fresh fruits. Firstly, the sources of damage to fresh fruits during mechanical handling are summarized. The mechanisms are described in detail. Existing quantitative assessments characterizing surface and internal mechanical damage and its prediction are then reviewed. Finally, future research directions are discussed. The main challenge in evaluating mechanical damage to fresh fruit objectively is to develop a method to assess accurately the extent of internal damage to fruits caused by excessive external forces.