Produce

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Produce on display at La Boqueria market in Barcelona, Spain La Boqueria.JPG
Produce on display at La Boqueria market in Barcelona, Spain

Produce is a generalized term for many farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables (grains, oats, etc. are also sometimes considered produce). More specifically, the term produce often implies that the products are fresh and generally in the same country as where and when they were harvested.[ citation needed ]

Contents

In supermarkets, the term is also used to refer to the section of the store where fruit and vegetables are kept. Produce is the main product sold by greengrocers (UK, Australia) and farmers' markets. The term is widely and commonly used in the U.S. and Canada, but is not typically used outside the agricultural sector in other English-speaking countries.

Storage

Vegetables are optimally stored between 0° and 4.4 °C (32 and 40 °F) to reduce respiration. Generally, vegetables should be stored at a high humidity (80 and 95 percent relative humidity), but cucurbits (squash family) and onions prefer dry and can mold when moisture is high. [1]

Packaging

A tomato in a Japanese supermarket on a plastic tray in plastic shrink film. Excessive unnecessary packaging of produce is overpackaging. Wasteful Food Packaging, Japan.jpg
A tomato in a Japanese supermarket on a plastic tray in plastic shrink film. Excessive unnecessary packaging of produce is overpackaging.

Produce may be packaged for transport or sale.

In parts of the world, including the U.S. and Europe, loose pieces of produce, such as apples, may be individually marked with small stickers bearing price look-up codes. These four- or five-digit codes are a standardized system intended to aid checkout and inventory control at places where produce is sold.

Bacterial contamination

Raw sprouts are among the produce most at risk of bacterial infection. [2]

Rinsing is an effective way to reduce the bacteria count on produce, reducing it to about 10 percent of its previous level. [3]

Wastewater used on vegetables can be a source of contamination, due to contamination with fecal matter, salmonella or other bacteria. [4] After Denmark eliminated salmonella in its chickens, attention has turned to vegetables as a source of illness due to feces contamination from other animal sources, such as pigs. [4]

See also

Notable people

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food preservation</span> Inhibition of microbial growth in food

Food preservation includes processes that make food more resistant to microorganism growth and slow the oxidation of fats. This slows down the decomposition and rancidification process. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit visual deterioration, such as the enzymatic browning reaction in apples after they are cut during food preparation. By preserving food, food waste can be reduced, which is an important way to decrease production costs and increase the efficiency of food systems, improve food security and nutrition and contribute towards environmental sustainability. For instance, it can reduce the environmental impact of food production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food irradiation</span> Sterilization of food with ionizing radiations for enhanced preservation and longer shelflife

Food irradiation is the process of exposing food and food packaging to ionizing radiation, such as from gamma rays, x-rays, or electron beams. Food irradiation improves food safety and extends product shelf life (preservation) by effectively destroying organisms responsible for spoilage and foodborne illness, inhibits sprouting or ripening, and is a means of controlling insects and invasive pests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lettuce</span> Species of annual plant of the daisy family, most often grown as a leaf vegetable

Lettuce is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, such as soups, sandwiches and wraps; it can also be grilled. One variety, celtuce, is grown for its stems, which are eaten either raw or cooked. In addition to its main use as a leafy green, it has also gathered religious and medicinal significance over centuries of human consumption. Europe and North America originally dominated the market for lettuce, but by the late 20th century the consumption of lettuce had spread throughout the world. As of 2021, world production of lettuce and chicory was 27 million tonnes, 53 percent of which came from China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sprouting</span> Practice of germinating seeds to be eaten raw or cooked

Sprouting is the natural process by which seeds or spores germinate and put out shoots, and already established plants produce new leaves or buds, or other structures experience further growth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Food storage</span> Type of storage that allows food to be eaten after time

Food storage is a way of decreasing the variability of the food supply in the face of natural, inevitable variability. It allows food to be eaten for some time after harvest rather than solely immediately. It is both a traditional domestic skill and, in the form of food logistics, an important industrial and commercial activity. Food preservation, storage, and transport, including timely delivery to consumers, are important to food security, especially for the majority of people throughout the world who rely on others to produce their food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple juice</span> Juice produced from apples

Apple juice is a fruit juice made by the maceration and pressing of an apple. The resulting expelled juice may be further treated by enzymatic and centrifugal clarification to remove the starch and pectin, which holds fine particulate in suspension, and then pasteurized for packaging in glass, metal, or aseptic processing system containers, or further treated by dehydration processes to a concentrate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dole plc</span> Irish multinational food corporation

Dole plc is an Irish-American agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables, operating with 38,500 full-time and seasonal employees who supply some 300 products in 75 countries. Dole reported 2021 revenues of $6.5 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modified atmosphere</span>

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is the practice of modifying the composition of the internal atmosphere of a package in order to improve the shelf life. The need for this technology for food arises from the short shelf life of food products such as meat, fish, poultry, and dairy in the presence of oxygen. In food, oxygen is readily available for lipid oxidation reactions. Oxygen also helps maintain high respiration rates of fresh produce, which contribute to shortened shelf life. From a microbiological aspect, oxygen encourages the growth of aerobic spoilage microorganisms. Therefore, the reduction of oxygen and its replacement with other gases can reduce or delay oxidation reactions and microbiological spoilage. Oxygen scavengers may also be used to reduce browning due to lipid oxidation by halting the auto-oxidative chemical process. Besides, MAP changes the gaseous atmosphere by incorporating different compositions of gases.

A baby carrot is a carrot harvested before reaching maturity and sold at that smaller size. A baby-cut carrot is a small piece cut from a larger carrot; baby-cut carrots are often marketed as "baby carrots", leading to potential confusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microgreen</span> Vegetable greens harvested shortly after sprouting

Microgreens are vegetable greens harvested just after the cotyledon leaves have developed with one set of true leaves. They are used as a visual, flavor and texture enhancement. Microgreens are used to add sweetness and spiciness to foods. Microgreens are smaller than "baby greens" because they are harvested soon after sprouting, rather than after the plant has matured to produce multiple leaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vegetable</span> Edible plant or part of a plant, involved in cooking

Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, leaves, roots, and seeds. An alternative definition of the term is applied somewhat arbitrarily, often by culinary and cultural tradition. It may exclude foods derived from some plants that are fruits, flowers, nuts, and cereal grains, but include savoury fruits such as tomatoes and courgettes, flowers such as broccoli, and seeds such as pulses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sprouts Farmers Market</span> American supermarket chain

Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc., is a supermarket chain headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The grocer offers a wide selection of natural and organic foods, including fresh produce, bulk foods, vitamins and supplements, packaged groceries, meat, poultry, seafood, deli, baked goods, dairy products, frozen foods, natural body care, and household items. Sprouts employs 35,000 workers and operates more than 380 stores in 23 states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pasteurized eggs</span> Packaged eggs pre-processed with medium heat

Pasteurized eggs are eggs that have been pasteurized in order to reduce the risk of foodborne illness in dishes that are not cooked or are only lightly cooked. They may be sold as liquid egg products or pasteurized in the shell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modified atmosphere/modified humidity packaging</span>

Modified atmosphere/modified humidity (MA/MH) packaging is a technology used to preserve the quality of fresh produce so that it can be sold to markets far away from where it is grown, extend the marketing period, and to help suppliers reduce food waste within the cold chain. Commercial examples of MA/MH include sea freight of Galia and cantaloupe melons from Central and South America to Europe and North America ; transport of white asparagus from fields in Peru to markets in Western Europe ; and trucking of cherries from orchards in Turkey to supermarkets in the UK.

Adulteration is a legal offense and when the food fails to meet the legal standards set by the government, it is said to have been Adulterated Food. One form of adulteration is the addition of another substance to a food item in order to increase the quantity of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which results in the loss of the actual quality of the food item. These substances may be either available food items or non-food items. Among meat and meat products some of the items used to adulterate are water or ice, carcasses, or carcasses of animals other than the animal meant to be consumed. In the case of seafood, adulteration may refer to species substitution (mislabeling), which replaces the species identified on the product label with another species, or undisclosed processing methods, in which treatments such as additives, excessive glazing, or short-weighting are not disclosed to the consumer.

Produce traceability makes it possible to track produce from its point of origin to a retail location where it is purchased by consumers.

Raw meat generally refers to any type of uncooked muscle tissue of an animal used for food. In the meat production industry, the term ‘meat’ refers specifically to mammalian flesh, while the words ‘poultry’ and ‘seafood’ are used to differentiate between the tissue of birds and aquatic creatures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post-harvest losses (vegetables)</span> Losses in quantity and quality of produce before consumer purchase

Post-harvest losses of vegetables and fruit occur at all points in the value chain from production in the field to the food being placed on a plate for consumption. Post-harvest activities include harvesting, handling, storage, processing, packaging, transportation and marketing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biopreservation</span>

Biopreservation is the use of natural or controlled microbiota or antimicrobials as a way of preserving food and extending its shelf life. The biopreservation of food, especially utilizing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that are inhibitory to food spoilage microbes, has been practiced since early ages, at first unconsciously but eventually with an increasingly robust scientific foundation. Beneficial bacteria or the fermentation products produced by these bacteria are used in biopreservation to control spoilage and render pathogens inactive in food. There are a various modes of action through which microorganisms can interfere with the growth of others such as organic acid production, resulting in a reduction of pH and the antimicrobial activity of the un-dissociated acid molecules, a wide variety of small inhibitory molecules including hydrogen peroxide, etc. It is a benign ecological approach which is gaining increasing attention.

References

  1. Morgan, Ray (July 2015). Vegetable storage in root cellars and basements in Alaska (PDF) (Report). University of Alaska, Cooperative Extension Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-20. Alt URL
  2. "Hold the Raw Sprouts, Please". www.medscape.com. Retrieved 2016-09-18.
  3. DeRusha, Jason (9 November 2010). "Good Question: Does Washing Fruit Do Anything?" . Retrieved 2016-09-18.
  4. 1 2 "No more salmonella in Danish poultry". 3 July 2012. Retrieved 2016-09-18.

Further reading

Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg The dictionary definition of produce at Wiktionary