COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE

INSTITUTE OF FOOD & AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE

Packinghouse Day Coordinators:
Mark Ritenour, Ph.D. - Program Coordinator
Bill Miller, Ph.D. - Exhibits Coordinator
Renée Goodrich, Ph.D. - Local Arrangements Coordinator

Welcome to the Forty-Third Annual Citrus Packinghouse Day! Throughout the day, leading members of industry and scientists from the University of Florida, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Florida Department of Citrus will present practical information of interest to your business. This year, in addition to the many important issues to be addressed, we will also be providing concurrent training sessions for packinghouse management and workers. These training sessions will cover: 1) Food Safety - Worker Health and Hygiene, 2) Forklift Driving Safety, and 3) Packinghouse Postharvest Treatments Safety. A Certificate of Completion will be awarded to each person completing the training.

This year's keynote speaker is Juan Muniz from PrimusLabs.com who will discuss how to pass a 3^rd party food safety audit, with brief information about EurepGap and BRC (British Retail Consortium) requirements. Other topics presented will include:

• Update on Issues of Packinghouse Biosecurity
• Prospects for Good Fruit Quality This Year
• Color Separation of Florida Citrus Prior to Degreening
• Prospects and Progress for Robotic Harvesting of Fresh Florida Citrus
• Potential Uses of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Tags in the Produce Industry
• Prospects and Prevention of Physiological Disorders of Fresh Citrus

Be sure to stick around for the door prize drawings. We will again be giving out $250 in door prizes. The only catch is that you have to be present to win. One of the door prizes will be given out in the exhibitor area. Also, please complete and turn in an evaluation form, they provide valuable feedback on how we can improve Packinghouse Day. One of the door prizes will be awarded only to participants who turn in a completed evaluation form.

Mark A. Ritenour
Program Coordinator
Indian River Research & Education Center

Forty-Third Annual Citrus Packinghouse Day

Thursday, September 2, 2004

9:30 AM WELCOME
Dr. Harold W. Browning, Center Director
Citrus Research and Education Center, Lake Alfred

PRESIDING
Mr. Richard Kinney
Executive Vice President
Florida Citrus Packers, Lakeland

Many retailers and foodservice companies are requiring the production of Safe Production Manuals and Third Party Audits as a verification of food safety practices. This presentation will:

Review the important components of a good food safety program

• Good Manufacturing Practices.
• Food Safety File Requirements.
• HACCP Program (Sometimes required by a Buyer).
• Food Security (evolving).

Provide instructions for accessing online tools for evaluating a company's food safety program

Discuss the steps that are involved in a PrimusLabs audit

Discuss practical tips on how to pass a food safety audit (including common pitfalls and misunderstandings about the requirements)

* Facility Audits Guidelines

(http://www.primuslabs.com/fs/guidelines.pdf )

And briefly discuss the general differences between domestic food safety standards and EUREPGAP and BRC requirements.

For more information, contact Jackie Alvarez or Chelsea Felix at (805) 922-0055 or by e-mail at - jalvarez@primuslabs.com or cfelix@primuslabs.com.

Starting with the President's Food Safety Initiative in 1997, there has been a heightened interest in produce-related food safety issues. An increase in per capita fruit and vegetable consumption in the past decade, coupled with several high-profile foodborne disease outbreaks related to produce, has led to continued regulatory and scientific focus on fresh and fresh-cut fruit and vegetable food safety and security.

GAPs

Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) have been the cornerstone programs in produce food safety for the past 5 years. Since 1998, when these federal guidance documents were issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), most major producers and packers have adopted GAPs programs. Impetus for change was the realization that produce food safety was a real concern for consumers and regulators alike. Additionally, many producers/packers instituted GAPs programs to achieve and/or maintain preferred vendor status with important customers.

Important components of GAPs programs include assessing the following aspects of production and packing, as appropriate for a given operation:

Water

• Agricultural water source and distribution
• Historical use of land
• Wells properly maintained
• Processing water is tested regularly
• Cooling water and ice are clean and sanitary

• Employees properly trained in good hygienic practices
• Re-assignment of ill employees to non-food handling duties
• Proper use of gloves
• Proper management and stocking of field toilets
• Be familiar with laws and regulations that might apply to field sanitation facilities such as state laws and OSHA

• Storage facilities and bins cleaned before use
• Do not re-contaminate produce that is washed, cooled or packed
• Maintain temperatures that promote optimum produce quality and minimize pathogen growth
• Assign responsibility for equipment cleaning and maintenance
• Remove as much dirt as possible outside packing area
• Establish and maintain pest control program in packinghouse

Transportation & Traceback

• Transportation vehicles inspected for cleanliness, odor and debris before loading
• Maintain proper transport temperatures
• Be able to trace produce containers from the farm, to the packer, distributor and retailer
• Document date of harvest, farm identification and who handled produce

Much useful and practical information regarding produce safety and GAPs can be found at the following FDA website: http://www.foodsafety.gov/~dms/fs-toc.html

September 11, 2001 was a wake-up call for American citizens and businesses. The nation's food supply has been identified as a critical network and a possible target for terrorist activities. This portion of the presentation will focus on summarizing the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 as it relates to fresh fruits and vegetables, including citrus. Some producers, and all packers, face new record keeping requirements in light of this recent legislation. The specific requirements of Facility Registration and Prior Notice will be reviewed, and some food security self-auditing information will be provided. A detailed discussion of the very recent (August 2004) "Questions and Answers Regarding Registration of Food Facilities - Edition 4" will cover the packer-specific aspects of this latest guidance. This document can be found at:

http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/ffregui4.html

http://www.fda.gov/oc/bioterrorism/bioact.html

10:45 AM PROSPECTS FOR GOOD FRUIT QUALITY THIS YEAR - L. Gene Albrigo, Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, FL 33850, albrigo@crec.ifas.ufl.edu

Any production, harvesting, or shipping recommendations? e.g., possibly hasten harvests from some crops, while others might be allowed to hang on the tree longer?

One potential scenario to operate a packinghouse more efficiently is to process only fruit lots where a high percent of the fruit is of a packable grade. Obviously, the first step would be to select groves that have been maintained to produce fresh market quality citrus and that have a previous history of yielding high packouts. A new step that packers may want to consider individually or in a cooperative arrangement is to pre-grade fruit before degreening. Electronic camera-based grading systems have been implemented in numerous Florida packinghouses. However, a high percent of non-marketable fruit are de-greened and handled through the initial dump, trash elimination and washing unit operations. An electronic sizing/grading step before de-greening could eliminate under and over-sized fruit, severely blemished fruit and fruit of low density (i.e. freeze-damaged or granulated fruit). Inclusion of color separation would reduce de-greening time and provide some fruit for immediate packing. Herein, preliminary results are presented on such initial color separation.

Fallglo tangerines were classified based on color only with a machine vision based automatic grading unit (Colour Vision Systems, Vero Beach, FL). The fruit were segregated into either 4 or 5 classes based on a hue-saturation-intensity color space with defined color regions ranging from yellow-orange to dark green. Although the fruit had not been washed, they were readily separated into color grades for subsequent de-greening.

Initial tests in Fall 2003 on three harvest dates of Fallglo tangerines, indicated that 14 to 44 percent of the fruit had satisfactory color for immediate packing. The amount of fruit considered dark green was 8 to 58 percent dependent upon harvest date. A de-greening time increase from 24 to 48 hours resulted in a small decrease from 4 to 2 percent, in dark green fruit.

Initial grading and separation of Florida citrus fruit before degreening would allow more efficient use of de-greening room space. Some fruit with sufficient natural color could be processed immediately. Secondary advantages of the above approach would include minimum fruit exposure time to ethylene treatments and better utilization of packingline equipment. The shortening or eliminating of degreening time should noticeably increase fruit quality and provide more uniformity in packing operations.

(The author would like to acknowledge the contributions of Ms. Sherrie Buchanon, Sr. Engineering Technician at CREC and Mr. Guillermo Moreda, Ph.D. student in Agricultural Engineering at Polytechnic Univ. of Madrid in conducting this study.)

In the summer of 2001, the Florida Department of Citrus began an investigation into the potential for using robotics to harvest citrus. Current mass harvesting programs have proven viable for process citrus, but cannot be used for fresh fruit markets, and questions remain with regard to mass harvesting late season Valencia. During the course of this investigation, a Fact Finding Team evaluated past horticultural robotics efforts, talked to experts in the area of robotics, agricultural mechanization, horticulture, and economists to determine if there had been sufficient advances in technology, and changes in the economic potential for robotic harvesting to suggest that a renewed effort was warranted. The consensus opinion of a Forum on Robotic Citrus Harvesting, April 2002, was that there was an urgent need for harvesting solutions for the fresh fruit market, that significant long-term financial commitment would be required, and although it is a difficult problem, enough technical progress has been made in the past decade to warrant a new robotics program. Initial optimistic estimates have suggested that a 7 to 10 year program will be required to bring forth a market ready system, which would require budgetary levels beyond that of most agricultural commodity groups. There is a growing interest among national researchers and commodity group leaders to seek federal funding for supporting a national initiative to promote automation of horticultural production.

Through the funding and support of the Florida Department of Citrus, a research program was began at the University of Florida in the summer of 2002, which is seeking to address the fundamental technology barriers which have prevented past citrus robotics efforts from being successful. The following research projects are currently in progress at the University of Florida; 1) fruit detection systems, 2) manipulator development, 3) fruit handling systems, 4) vehicle guidance, 5) visual servo control, and 6) grove design and tree genetics for optimized harvesting.

11:30 AM RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION - J. P. Emond, Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, University of Florida, Gainesville

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a method of identifying unique items using radio waves. Typically, a reader communicates with a tag, which holds digital information in a microchip. Already large organizations such as Wal-Mart, Albertsons and the U.S. Department of Defense are now committed to using RFID technology in open supply chains.

As the produce industry, we are faced with many challenges related to RFID. RFID signals have trouble traveling through water (basic component of produce) and environmental conditions found in warehouses such as high humidity and dust. The UF/IFAS Center for Food Distribution and Retailing, equipped with the most advanced RFID laboratory for food products in the country, is proposing to use a large part of their resources to solving these problems. This presentation will detail recent results of RFID testing with produce in the supply chain. It will also present the importance of forming a collaborative partnership between key produce industry leaders in the supply chain, retail, academia, and technology.

11:45 AM PREVENTION OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PEEL DISORDERS OF FRESH CITRUS, WITH SPECIFIC ATTENTION TO POSTHARVEST PITTING AND CHILLING INJURY - Huating Dou, Florida Department of Citrus, Lake Alfred, FL 33850

The most significant physiological peel disorders in Florida fresh citrus are postharvest pitting (PP) and chilling injury (CI). The former is characterized by the collapse of clusters of oil glands 1-2 weeks after packing; the latter develops as general peel damage during cold storage, needing at least 4-6 weeks storage at low temperatures before symptom development. Occurrences of these two disorders are reported each season and may cause tremendous losses for growers, packers, and shippers. Production conditions and cultural practices influence the susceptibility of citrus fruit to both PP and CI development but are not the primary factors. Symptoms of these disorders are much more likely to occur if postharvest handling practices are not optimal. Transit and storage temperatures, relative humidity from harvest to shipping, and type of wax formulation are three key postharvest factors influencing the occurrence and severity of PP and CI disorders.

Preharvest conditions which influence the development of PP and CI include fertilization rate, water availability, and fruit size. Previously, we found that PP is most severe with trees exposed to low potassium and high nitrogen conditions. Irrigation at 60% depletion of available soil moisture also increases PP occurrence. PP is higher in large grapefruit than in small grapefruit, and canopy position has little influence in PP incidence. PP develops most severely in 'Fallglo' tangerines, Navel oranges, and grapefruit. White 'Marsh' grapefruit is particularly susceptible to PP development compared to 'Ruby' red, Flame, or 'Rio' red grapefruit. CI can occur in all varieties, particularly in white 'Marsh' grapefruit. CI is more severe in sun-exposed grapefruit growing on the outer canopy, compared to inner-canopy, shaded fruit. Both disorders are more prevalent in early- and late-season fruit, than in mid-season fruit.

If transit and storage temperatures are optimal, both PP and CI can be greatly reduced. With shellac-waxed fruit, the recommended temperature is 45-48 F for grapefruit, and 34-40 F for tangerines and oranges. These temperatures should be maintained as closely as possible, especially in grapefruit where CI can become severe at 38-42 F. Generally, high storage humidity is recommended from harvest to shipping. Use of trailers with temperature and humidity control is recommended for transit durations longer than 2 hours. Recent studies from Dr. Burns' group show that PP can occur if stored fruit are transferred from low (30%) to high (90%) relative humidity. Fruit quality is optimized if fruit internal oxygen concentration is higher than 10-12% after the coating application. Application of shellac wax, while protective against CI, causes the lowest gas permeability of the waxes (shellac, carnauba, polyethylene) and results in the highest incidence of the PP. Carnauba wax is less protective against CI but develops less PP because it provides good gas permeability. Polyethylene wax has better gas permeability than shellac wax but, in most cases, permeability is less than carnauba wax.

In summary, the best production practices and postharvest handling, especially, temperature and humidity management in combination with wax selection prevents fruit from developing PP and CI. Leaving waxed fruit at ambient temperature with low humidity can cause severe PP development. Consistently maintaining the optimal recommended temperature along with high humidity throughout the postharvest chain minimizes the development of PP and CI.

More information regarding the prospects of PP and CI prevention can be find in the Packinghouse Newsletter No. 194 and 195, in "Update on postharvest pitting and its control" (available at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/CH081), and in "Chilling injury of grapefruit and its control" (available at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HS191).