Reducción de pérdida de calidad en frutos manipulados en líneas industriales de confección

[ESP] La manipulación y el trasporte de los productos hortícolas puede resultar en diferentes niveles de daño debido a golpes e impactos. La esfera electrónica es una herramienta de mucha ayuda cuando se pretende determinar en qué etapa de los procesos de manipulación se puede producir un daño significativo. En el presente trabajo se analizan los datos obtenidos al utilizar una esfera electrónica en líneas de manipulación y envasado de pimiento y melocotón. El estudio se realizó en almacenes de la región de Murcia. La esfera se pasó por las líneas y se registraron los valores de aceleración de la gravedad y los cambios de velocidad en etapas consideradas críticas. Para el melocotón, las diferencias entre el volcado del producto a la línea realizado en forma manual, comparado con el volcado mecánico de palox, representó un mayor número de situaciones de daño en los frutos. En función de los resultados obtenidos se concluye que el uso de la esfera electrónica representa un elemento de mucha utilidad para detectar las zonas críticas y proponer mejoras. En la mayoría de los casos estas mejoras no implican una inversión de importancia para la empresa. Estos cambios repercutirían positivamente en la reducción de los porcentajes de rechazo. [ENG] The Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata Wied.) is a species of fruit fly able of causing extensive damage to a wide range of unrelated fruit crops. Considered as a quarantine plague it affects oranges, tangerines and, in a lesser extent, grapefruits and lemons. It damages directly the fruits, decreasing production and representing a threat for exportation. The United States Department of Agriculture has standardized the cold quarantine treatments for fruit fly establishing 1.11; 1.67, or 2.22ºC for a period of 14, 16 or 18 days respectively. However, citrus exposure to those temperatures and durations may induce chilling injury (CI). For lemon fruits, loss of sensory quality due to softening and water loss, physiological damage and the development of rots have been observed. From the other side, the beneficial effect of controlled atmospheres (CA) in order to avoid quality loss of fruit and vegetables has been extensively reported. The objective of this work was to simulate a commercial maritime transport of lemons using CA (10 kPa O2 + 1 kPa CO2, 90% RH) and compared to air as a control (80-85% RH). Storage under refrigerated containers was prolonged during 18 days at 2ºC followed by 7 days at 20ºC to simulate a commercial distribution and retail sale. After the quarantine treatment, additional simulated delay of 4 days at 1ºC at harbor as well as 4 days at 8ºC to simulate a delay in a logistic platform at destination were applied. Lemon fruits cv. Verna were harvested at green-yellow stage and conditioned for 24 h at room temperature (about 25ºC). Different fungicides against storage rots were then used: a) Imazalil (2000 ppm) applied in drencher and imazalil (1500 ppm) + tiabendazol (TBZ, 2000 ppm) + carnauba wax applied in the processing line; b) imazalil (500 ppm) + ortophenilphenol (1500 ppm) applied in drencher and TBZ (5000 ppm) + carnauba wax applied in the processing line, or c) imazalil (3000 ppm) applied in drencher. Then they were packaged in telescopic cardboard or wooden boxes (15 kg each). Pallets (42) were air pre-cooled at 2ºC during 24 h, and then placed in a conventional reefer container (21 pallets) or in a container reefer unit for CA (21). After storage, physiological damage, rot development, pH, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, color and sensory quality were evaluated. The respiratory activity and ethylene emission rate were also monitored. By the end of storage periods compared to air CA treatment slowdown ripening and softening and decreased losses due to CI (mainly pitting) from 1.5% to 0.6% and to decay (mainly due to Penicilium spp) from 14.2% to 5.9%. When 5000 ppm TBZ in wax was applied the severity of CI was lowered and losses were reduced to only 0.2%. All fungicides were similarly efficient for controlling decay. Percentage of fruits affected by rots was doubled in cardboard than for wooden boxes. As main conclusion, the best treatment was CA combined with imazalil (5000 ppm) + 1500 ppm ortofenilfenol (in drencher) followed by 5000 ppm TBZ (in wax)