The main properties of fruit offered on the retail market in Hungary

The small enterprises of the Hungarian retail market of food and related commodities are in a dismal crisis, many of them gotbankruptcy, whereas fruit and vegetables are offered in large shop-chains and supermarkets. Traditional small shops near to the domiciles arestill highly esteemed by the population and their lack is regretted especially because of commodities for fresh consumption. For the purposeto evaluate the situation, I planned the comparative study of fruits offered in the retail markets by tracing their origin, quality and prices. Fromthe six shops selected for the study three represent department stores belonging to different chains. Independent entrepreneurs manage thenext three shops of vegetables with own suppliers. It was stated that the retail shops offer mainly fruits of Hungarian growers. It is howeverworthwhile to state that the origin of the produce was frequently not marked. The fruits imported from abroad, apple, pear, peach, were soldat substantially higher prices than those of Hungarian origin

The main properties of fruit offered on the retail market in Hungary

The small enterprises of the Hungarian retail market of food and related commodities are in a dismal crisis, many of them got bankruptcy, whereas fruit and vegetables are offered in large shop-chains and supermarkets. Traditional small shops near to the domiciles are still highly esteemed by the population and their lack is regretted especially because of commodities for fresh consumption. For the purpose to evaluate the situation, I planned the comparative study of fruits offered in the retail markets by tracing their origin, quality and prices. From the six shops selected for the study three represent department stores belonging to different chains. Independent entrepreneurs manage the next three shops of vegetables with own suppliers. It was stated that the retail shops offer mainly fruits of Hungarian growers. It is however worthwhile to state that the origin of the produce was frequently not marked. The fruits imported from abroad, apple, pear, peach, were sold at substantially higher prices than those of Hungarian origin

Economic figures of apple production at national level of Hungary

After the change of the political system the main looser was in Hungary the fruit-growing branch. The yields varied at highamplitudes, and the production increased slowly in spite of multiple planting activities. The European Union ranked fruit production “loosely”to the products, which allows the extension of its markets. Thus I decided to analyse the economic relations of the period between 2002 and2008 in order to reveal the main effects of movements. The pictures are the resultants of a heterogeneous population, which cannot beinfluenced on the level of enterprises. But they are utilised for the recognition of challenges and trends on the level of branches of economy.The immediate costs increased the production monotonously, which cannot be compensated by a thrifty management of the general costs.Thus costs of production increased dramatically, whereas the marketing of products could not realise the values

Economic figures of apple production at national level of Hungary

After the change of the political system the main looser was in Hungary the fruit-growing branch. The yields varied at high amplitudes, and the production increased slowly in spite of multiple planting activities. The European Union ranked fruit production “loosely” to the products, which allows the extension of its markets. Thus I decided to analyse the economic relations of the period between 2002 and 2008 in order to reveal the main effects of movements. The pictures are the resultants of a heterogeneous population, which cannot be influenced on the level of enterprises. But they are utilised for the recognition of challenges and trends on the level of branches of economy. The immediate costs increased the production monotonously, which cannot be compensated by a thrifty management of the general costs. Thus costs of production increased dramatically, whereas the marketing of products could not realise the values

Economic figures of sour cherry production at national level of Hungary

After the political changes of 1989, economical processes impaired heavily the Hungarian fruit growing branch, more particularly production of sour cherry. Paralleling with the increasing mass of production, producer’s prices dwindled drastically. At present, Hungarian growers cannot cover the costs of production, nay, hardly raise income. My purpose was to analyse the cost and income relations of the sour cherry branch during the period of 2002-2009 years in order to find out what are the decisive features, which reveal the trends to be considered. The data presented in the paper are means of a heterogeneous population of values, which cannot be utilised for immediate use in management, but they may reveal the challenges and tendencies of economics of the branch

Early detection of cobweb disease infection on Agaricus bisporus sporocarps using hyperspectral imaging

From the nineteen-nineties, cobweb disease caused serious losses for the mushroom sector in Europe, in the USA, and in Australia (Fletcher & Gaze, 2008), so it is one of the most notable fungal infections of cultivated white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus). The aim of this study was to identify cobweb disease (Cladobortyum dendroides) caused cap spotting and brownish rot on the mushroom sporocarp, and to find a proper discrimination method in the case of this infection.Fruiting body samples were divided into 4 groups, a control one and three others treated with different chemicals that are tested against fungal infections. The groups were subdivided into 2 portions and the first was infected with cobweb disease. Images of the caps were recorded and their hyperspectral images were acquired in the wavelength range of 900–1700 nm.On the hyperspectral images infected and healthy areas were selected, on these average spectra differences were found around the known water peaks (1200 and 1450 nm). The spatial distribution of the water content can be used for the detection of the spoilage, because the infected areas showed different reflection values at these water absorption peaks.Support Vector Machine method was applied successfully to discriminate between the infected and control groups and Monte Carlo cross-validation was carried out

Sour cherry for fresh consumption in the retail sector A consumer aspect

The basic objective of our study is the promotion of fresh consumption of sour cherry and the enhancement of necessary knowledge. Primer collection of data was planned in three groups of retail shops, always sour cherry being the matter of study. The sampling dates were adapted to the sour cherry season weeks in Hungary. Three samples per week have been taken. Every time a short interview and purchase was planned. Every time, it was stated that the commodity was held for a longer period on the shelf, which trespasses the optimum of the fruit. At the same time there was no concordance between quality and price. From the point of view of the consumer this cannot be accepted

Application of electronic tongue to discriminate white wines originated from different regions of Hungary

In this work, the application of an electronic tongue (ET) based on a specific ion-selective sensor array for discrimination of different white wine types is presented. The electronic tongue equipped with specific sensor array containing seven IFSET sensors was used to analyze wine samples. The obtained ET responses were evaluated using different pattern recognition methods. Principal component analysis (PCA) provides the possibility to identify some initial patterns. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to build models to separate white wine samples based on wine regions and grape cultivars. The results showed that every group was distinguished from each other with no misclassification error. Furthermore, the sequence of the wine sample groups was similar to the increasing total acidity content. Partial least square (PLS) regression was used to build models for the prediction of the main chemical compositions of the wine samples based on the electronic tongue results. The closest correlation (R2=0.93) was found in case of ‘total acidity’, and the prediction error (RMSEP) was 6.9%. The pH of the wine samples was predicted with good correlation (R2=0.89) but higher prediction error (RMSEP=10.71%) from the electronic tongue results. The ET combining these statistical methods can be applied to determine the origin and variety of the wine samples in easy and quick way

Comparison of sound velocity estimation and classification methods for ultrasonic testing of cheese

Testing of two methods novel to ultrasonic measurements was carried out on cheese samples to estimate the Time-of-Flight (TOF) parameter. The Short Time Average/Long Time Average (STA/LTA) method and the Autoregressive Akaike Information Criterion Picker (AR-AIC picker) method are used mainly in seismology for earthquake event detection. The STA/LTA method proved to be ineffective with such noise level that is present during ultrasonic measurements, but the AIC picker algorithm yielded reliable results. A new approach for classification was tested on two types of samples, those were matching in composition, but different in treatment and texture. The method used is based on the results of wavelet decomposition, and after retrieving sufficient spectral data, a linear discriminant analysis (DA) resulted in 100% correct classification, which was compared to the DA classification results based on other methods

Sour cherry for fresh consumption in the retail sector A consumer aspect

The basic objective of our study is the promotion of fresh consumption of sour cherry and the enhancement of necessary knowledge.Primer collection of data was planned in three groups of retail shops, always sour cherry being the matter of study. The sampling dates wereadapted to the sour cherry season weeks in Hungary. Three samples per week have been taken. Every time a short interview and purchase wasplanned. Every time, it was stated that the commodity was held for a longer period on the shelf, which trespasses the optimum of the fruit.At the same time there was no concordance between quality and price. From the point of view of the consumer this cannot be accepted