Effect of fresh-cut apples fortification with lycopene microspheres, revalorized from tomato by-products, during shelf life

Fresh–cut apple browning has been conventionally tried to control with the help of ascorbic acid dips, although such antioxidant effect is limited. Lycopene, absent in apple flesh, is the carotenoid in nature with the highest antioxidant capacity, in special for its cis−isomers. Tomato skin is a low cost by-product with very high lycopene content (7.23 g kg−1) and high potential to be incorporated as an antioxidant agent in antibrowning dipping treatments. High lycopene extraction from tomato skin was achieved with a thermal treatment (75 ºC, 1 h) favouring trans−to−cis lycopene isomerization with TiO2 nanoparticles. Lycopene extracts were highly encapsulated (encapsulation efficiency: 92.2 %) with the complex coacervation method and the obtained microspheres were then incorporated in dipping treatments (0.5 (L0.5), 1 (L1) or 2 g L–1 (L2)) during fresh–cut apples processing, compared with an ascorbic acid dipping (AA; 10 g L–1). Quality changes (colour, microbial, physicochemical and bioactive compounds) were studied up to 9 d at 5 ºC. The L2 dipping controlled better the browning during storage, showing the lowest browning index among treatments (BI=43.8) after 9 d. Furthermore, L2 dipping did not affect the physicochemical quality of samples, while maintaining a good microbial quality. Incorporation of lycopene microspheres also improved the bioactive quality of samples, still showing total cis−lycopene isomer content of ≈ 20 mg kg−1 after 9 d. Furthermore, chlorogenic acid, the predominant phenolic acid, content was enhanced by 56 % in L2 samples after 6–9 d. In conclusion, a dipping treatment of fresh–cut apples including 2 g L–1 lycopene microspheres reduced browning, while quality was maintained and some bioactive compounds even enhanced after 9 d at 5 ºC.The authors are grateful to the Institute of Plant Biotechnology of the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena for the use of its equipment. The concession of a predoctoral grant to N. Castillejo (FPU16/04763) by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain is appreciated. Thanks are also due to Agricola Gaobe S.L. for providing the tomatoes. The technical support of R. Pérez–Álvarez and J.M. García–Rojo is highly appreciated

Periodical UV-B radiation hormesis in biosynthesis of kale sprouts nutraceuticals

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the periodical UV-B radiation hormesis during kale seeds germination in their main content of secondary metabolite compounds (phenols; glucosinolates; total antioxidant capacity –TAC–) and their changes during a refrigerated shelf-life. The total UV-B doses received were 0, 5, 10, and 15 kJ m−2 (CTRL, UVB5, UVB10, and UVB15) in where the 25% was applied on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 10th sprouting day. UV radiation did not affect the morphological development of the sprouts. UVB10 and UVB15 treatments increased their phenolic content (>30%). Likewise, TAC was increased by UV-B lighting ~10% (DPPH) and ~20% (FRAP). The hydroxycinnamic acid content in UVB15-treated sprouts increased by 52%, while UVB5 reported an increase of 34% in the kaempferol-3,7-di-O-glucoside concentration, compared to CTRL. After 10 d at 4 °C of shelf-life, content of gallic acid hexoside I and gallic acid increased by 55 and 78% compared to UV-untreated kale sprouts, respectively. Glucoraphanin was the main glucosinolate found in kale sprouts and seeds, followed by 4-hydroxy-glucobrassicin, whose biosynthesis was enhanced by UVB10 (~24 and ~27%) and UVB15 (~36 and ~30%), respectively, compared to CTRL. In conclusion, periodical low UV-B illumination represents a useful tool to stimulate phytochemicals biosynthesis in kale sprouts as an important source of bioactive compounds with potential health benefits.Noelia Castillejo was funded by a predoctoral grant (FPU16/04763) from the Spanish Ministry of Education. Lorena Martínez-Zamora's contract (21322/PDGI/19) is part of the Regional Programme for research talent and its employability of the Seneca Foundation, co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) through the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI). The technical assistance of Francisca Andreo is highly appreciated

Postharvest UV radiation enhanced biosynthesis of flavonoids and carotenes in bell peppers

UV abiotic stresses have beneficial effects in plants inducing the synthesis of secondary metabolites when low doses were applied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of 6 kJ m−2 UV (B or C) and 6 + 6 kJ m−2 UV (B + C) on the main bioactive compounds of red bell peppers during a refrigerated shelf-life period. Changes in carotenoids, phenolics, and flavonoids were studied after 8 and 14 d at 7 °C, an after an additional retail sale period of 4 d at 18 °C. Physicochemical quality attributes were not affected by any UV treatment. Generally, UV treatments induced carotenoid accumulation, highlighting that after 14 d at 7 °C, UVB and UVC increased by 59 % the total carotenoid content, and UVB + C did it by 94 % compared to non-UV-treated peppers as control (CTRL). UVC, UVB, and UVB + C are good elicitors of the flavonoid biosynthesis with 42, 66, and 43 % increases just after treatment, respectively, compared to CTRL. This behaviour was enhanced in UVC and UVB + C treated peppers after 8 d at 7 °C (15 and 44 %, respectively) and after 14 d at 7 °C (146 and 137 %) regarding CTRL peppers, which was also shown after the retail period assayed of 4 d at 18 °C. In conclusion, a postharvest 6 kJ m-2 UV-C treatment could be a great tool for increasing the accumulation of carotenoids and flavonoids in red bell peppers.This research received no external funding. Noelia Castillejo contract was funded by a predoctoral grant (FPU16/04763) from the Spanish Ministry of Education. Lorena Martínez-Zamora contract has been co-financed by the European Social Fund and the Youth European Initiative under the Spanish Seneca Foundation (21322/PDGI/19). Authors thanks Henarejos y Tárraga, S.L. and the Asociación Eco-innovadora Agrícola de la Región de Murcia for the kindly supply of bell peppers

Postharvest UV-B and photoperiod with blue + red LEDs as strategies to stimulate carotenogenesis in bell peppers

Background: Our objective was to evaluate carotenoid accumulation in bell peppers during shelf life under different light conditions. Methods: Fruit stored for 6 d at 7 °C received a 9 kJ m−2 UV-B treatment, while non-UV-treated were used as control (CTRL). Subsequently, all peppers were disposed for a retail sale period of 4 d at 20 °C with a photoperiod of 14 h under fluorescent light (FL) + 10 h under darkness (D), FL, or blue + red LEDs (BR LED). Results: Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was increased by the UV-B treatment and the photoperiods supplemented with FL and BR LED, which was directly related to the carotenoid content. In fact, CTRL peppers (225 mg β-carotene kg−1) under FL+BR LED showed an increase of ~33% of 13-cis-β-carotene, ~24% of all-trans-β-carotene, and ~27.5% of 9-cis-β-carotene compared to FL + D and FL + FL. Capsaicinoids showed an increase by ~22%, ~38%, and ~27% in the content of capsanthin, capsanthin laurate, and capsanthin esters, respectively, after the UV-B treatment, which was even enhanced after the LED-supplemented photoperiod by ~18% compared to FL+D. Conclusions: Illumination with BR LEDs + UV-B during the retail sale period nights is recommended to increase the bioactive content of bell peppers via carotenoid accumulation to 270 mg β-carotene kg−1

Effect of postharvest visible spectrum LED lighting on quality and bioactive compounds of tomatoes during shelf life

The objective was to evaluate the effect of visible spectrum LED lighting during shelf-life on physicochemical quality and the main bioactive compounds of Kumato® cherry tomatoes. Tomatoes were stored 13 days at 5 °C under white (W), blue (B), blue + red (B + R), green + red (G + R), and green + far-red (G + FR) LED lights. Darkness (D) was used as control. Tomatoes under illumination showed higher weight losses and firmness decreases (30–35%). No chilling injury was observed. B + R lighting increased the carotenoid content by ∼27%, while G + R and G + FR reported an increase ∼30% in phenolics. B and B + R showed the highest increase in the phytochemical biosynthesis (lycopene and naringenin, as main carotenoid and flavonoid found) compared to D and W. Conclusively, illumination with B + R or B during shelf-life is recommended to enhance the main bioactive compounds. G + R and G + FR, also reported to be good elicitors of the phenolics and carotenoids biosynthesis.During the development of this research, Noelia Castillejo contract was funded by a predoctoral grant (FPU16/04763) from the Spanish Ministry of Education (until March 2022). Lorena Martínez-Zamora contract was co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Youth European Initiative (YEI) under the Spanish Seneca Foundation (21322/PDGI/19) until December 2021. Currently, Lorena Martínez-Zamora contract is financed by the Programme for the Re-qualification of the Spanish University System during the three-year period 2021–2023, Margarita Salas modality for the University of Murcia. Authors thanks to G's España Holdings SL for the kindly supply of the Kumato® cherry tomatoes. The technical assistance during experiments of Cristina Martínez Moreno is also appreciated

Postharvest UV-B and UV-C radiation enhanced the biosynthesis of glucosinolates and isothiocyanates in brassicaceae sprouts

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of UV lighting (UV-B, UV-C and UV-C + UV-B) as a postharvest abiotic stress in the quality changes of minimally processed Brassicaceae sprouts (broccoli and radish) during a shelf-life period of 10 d at 4 ºC. No UV illumination was used as control (CTRL). The total UV-C doses received were 9 kJ m-2 (UVC) and 15 kJ m-2 UV-B (UVB) by applying the 50% of such doses after harvest and on the first day of the shelf-life. Results showed that when UVC was applied, the epiphytic microbial load was reduced up to 1 log CFU g-1 fw. The UVB treatment reported the highest total phenolic content (TPC) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) after 10 d at 4 ºC. In general, both species showed an amelioration effect in the TPC and TAC after UV treatments, which also enhanced the glucosinolate (GL) and the main isothiocyanates (ITC) content. In fact, UVB increased by ~30 % the GL content compared to CTRL samples, which were mostly aliphatic GLs in radish and indolyl GLs in broccoli. As main ITC, sulforaphane content was enhanced by 37.5 % in UVB-treated broccoli sprouts while the sulforaphene content was highly increased by 72 % in radish sprouts. In conclusion, UVB radish sprouts reported 5-fold higher GL content and 60-fold higher biologically ITC content than broccoli sprouts. Therefore, its inclusion in the daily intake is recommended to increase the prevention of chronic inflammatory diseases.Noelia Castillejo was funded by a predoctoral grant (FPU16/04763) from the Spanish Ministry of Education. Lorena Martínez-Zamora contract has been co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Youth European Initiative (YEI) under the Spanish Seneca Foundation (21322/PDGI/19). The technical assistance of Francisca Andreo is highly appreciated

Simple Baseline for Vehicle Pose Estimation: Experimental Validation

Significant progress on human and vehicle pose estimation has been achieved in recent years. The performance of these methods has evolved from poor to remarkable in just a couple of years. This improvement has been obtained from increasingly complex architectures. In this paper, we explore the applicability of simple baseline methods by adding a few deconvolutional layers on a backbone network to estimate heat maps that correspond to the vehicle keypoints. This approach has been proven to be very effective for human pose estimation. The results are analyzed on the PASCAL3DC dataset, achieving state-of-the-art results. In addition, a set of experiments has been conducted to study current shortcomings in vehicle keypoints labelling, which adversely affect performance. A new strategy for de ning vehicle keypoints is presented and validated with our customized dataset with extended keypoints

Red fresh vegetables smoothies with extended shelf life as an innovative source of health-promoting compounds

Two fresh red vegetables smoothies based on tomato, carrots, pepper and broccoli and rich in health promoting compounds were developed. The smoothies showed a viscoelastic behaviour. According to sensory analyses, a shelf life of 28 days at 5 °C for fresh blended smoothies was established while thermally-treated ones (3 min, 80 °C) reached up to 40 days at 20 °C and 58 days at 5 °C. For those mild heat treated smoothies, total vitamin C degradation was 2-fold reduced during storage at 5 °C compared to samples stored at 20 °C while the initial total carotenoids, lycopene and total chlorophylls contents were not greatly affected. A 250-g portion of such smoothies covers in a great extend the established recommended daily nutrient intakes for dietary fibre, minerals and vitamin C of different population groups. As main conclusion, a mild thermal treatment and low temperature storage greatly increased the shelf life of red fresh vegetables smoothies and reduced total vitamin C degradation

Antifungal activity of a thymol-based active packaging system for tomato preservation

[SPA] El tomate es altamente nutritivo, pero muy susceptible a enfermedades fúngicas, incluido el moho gris causado por Botrytis cinerea. En este estudio, se elaboró un sistema de envasado antifúngico a base de un sachet utilizando una película Tyvek® para formar la bolsa y timol como agente activo. El efecto del sachet se evaluó in vitro contra B. cinerea en medio PDA e in vivo para controlar el moho gris en tomates tipo cherry infectados artificialmente. Según el caso, las placas inoculadas o frutos infectados fueron almacenados a 11 °C en un sistema de envasado con y sin el sachet adherido a la parte interna de la cubierta. Los resultados mostraron que el sachet elaborado fue eficaz para inhibir el crecimiento de B. cinerea durante los 6 d de incubación, con un 97 % de inhibición. Además, cuando el sachet fue evaluado durante el almacenamiento del tomate infectado, la incidencia y la severidad se redujeron, especialmente desde el segundo día hasta los 20 d. Por lo tanto, este sachet activo con timol tiene una aplicación potencial como un sistema de envasado antifúngico para preservar tomates tipo cherry, y probablemente otros productos hortofrutícolas susceptibles a la infección por B. cinerea. [ENG] Tomato fruit is highly nutritious, but it is susceptible to fungal diseases including gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea. In this study, an antifungal sachet-based packaging system was made using Tyvek® film to form the sachet and thymol as the active agent. The effect of the sachet was assayed both in vitro against B. cinerea growing on PDA medium and in vivo to control gray mold on artificially infected cherry tomatoes. According to the assay, inoculated plates or infected fruit were stored at 11 °C inside a packaging system with and without a sachet attached to the lid inner side. The results showed that the prepared sachet was effective at inhibiting the B. cinerea growth during the 6 incubation days, with 97 % of inhibition. Furthermore, when the sachet was evaluated during storage of infected tomato, the incidence and severity of decay was reduced, especially from the second day to the day 20 of storage. Thus, this thymol-carrying sachet has a potential application as an antifungal-releasing packaging system for preserving cherry tomato, and probably other fruit and vegetables susceptible to B. cinerea infection.Expresamos nuestro agradecimiento a Agrícola Gaobe SL por suministrarnos el material vegetal a través de la Cooperativa CASI, y a BIOCONSERVACIÓN S.A (Barcelona, España) por facilitarnos la película Tyvek®. También agradecemos a Roberta Passafiume y Francisca por su ayuda técnica