Dr. Hamutal Borochov-Neori, Ida Milanes and Moti Harari, Southern Arava R&D.

 Abstract

Traditional open field agriculture is facing reclining margins in face of the growing competition for western markets. To assure profitability it is necessary to develop technologies for added-value products prepared from locally grown produce.

Fresh-cut vegetables and fruits are a relatively new and rapidly developing component of the US and European fresh produce industry. The research aims to develop a novel integrated processing and preservation system in which fresh-cut vegetables and fruits may be prepared at point of harvest and maintain high quality during transportation, distribution and vending.

The present report summarizes the results of our study on tomato and pepper.

The work included steps of variety selection, establishment of cultivation protocol and development of processing procedures. The results indicate that with the right set of choices it is possible to produce high quality fresh-cut tomato and pepper with 14-day shelf-life in refrigeration.