Postharvest Handling of Fruits and Vegetables Flashcards
True or False.
The WHO recommends less than 400 g of fruits and vegetables per day (excluding starchy root crops)
False.
it should be greater than or equal to 400g
It is the vitamin present in all fruits and vegetables, supplying about 95% of body requirements.
Vit C
What is the botanical definition of a fruit?
The edible portion of a plant that contains the seed or its envelope.
What kind of vegetable is an onion?
Bulb (underground bud)
What are the three main categories of vegetables?
seeds and pods
bulbs, roots, and tubers
flowers, buds, stems, and leaves
True or False
The structural origins of fruits and vegetables have a major bearing on the recommendations for their postharvest management.
True.
Give an example of fruit consumed as vegetable.
Ripe - tomato, eggplant
Immature - zucchini, cucumber, okra
True or False
Above ground structures in plants do not have natural wax coatings as they mature while roots develop some of the same coating.
False.
Above ground structures structures in plants have natural wax coatings as they mature which reduces transpiration (evaporation of water in plants). While roots do not develop such coatings therefore should be stored at high relative humidity to minimize water loss.
True or false.
All fruits and vegetables are plant organs.
True
True or false
All plant organs consist of plant tissues with a collective composition of a cell, where a cell wall is within the cell.
True.
What composes the rigid cell walls of plant cells?
Cellulose fibers and other polymers such as pectic substances, hemicelluloses, lignins, and proteins.
It is the communication channel of adjacent cells that link their cytoplasmic masses.
Plamodesmata
What consist the molecular structure of pectin?
Homogalacturonan
Rhamnogalacturonan I
Which one is incorrect:
A. Cell walls provide support to the cell membrane, plasmalemma against the hydrostatic pressure of the cell contents that might burst the membrane.
B. Cell walls are soft and composed of chloroplasts.
B. Cell walls are rigid and they are composed of cellulose fibers.
True or False
The breakdown of storage reserves of carbohydrate by glycolysis and protein synthesis occur in the mitochondria.
False.
It occurs in the cytoplasm
This organelle contains the DNA of the cell.
Nucleus
What is the transcription product of the genetic code of DNA called?
mRNA
Why is the mitochondria called the powerhouse of the cell?
It is because it utilizes the products of glycolysis for energy production.
What is the photosynthetic apparatus of the cell?
Chloroplasts.
This organelle contains the respiratory enzymes of the TCA cycle and respiratory electron transport system which synthesizes ATP
Mitochondria
True or False
The chromoplast is the site of starch grain development.
False.
Amyloplasts are the site of starch grain development.
This contains the carotenoids which produce the yellow-red pigments of many fruits.
Chromoplast
What is the most abundant component in fruits and vegetables?
Water
True or False
Starchy tubers and seeds (yam, cassava, and corn) contain very small amount of water (2g/100g of water)
False.
50g/100g of water
This fruit and vegetable component account for 2-40g/100g of produce tissue and is present across a wide molecular weight range from simple sugars to complex polymers
Carbohydrates
True or False
Glucose and fructose occur in all produce.
True.
They are also present at similar level, unlike sucrose.
The legumes and Brassica vegetables contain an abundant amount of this vegetable nutrient.
Protein
This vegetable nutrient is associated with protective cuticle layers on the surface of produce and with cell membranes
Lipids
True or False
Fruits and vegetables contain high amount of lipids thus, causing the rise of heart disease in the community.
False.
They are present at low levels thus are good factors for combating heart diseases.
What are the dominant acids in fruits and vegetables?
Citric acid and Malic acid
What does Vitamin C make that makes it important for repair and maintenance of the skin and cartilaginous tissue and blood vessels?
Collagen
How much is the daily requirement for Vitamin C?
50mg
True or False
Fruits and vegetables produce vitamin A and folic acid.
True.
Is vitamin C a good antioxidant relevant for food processing?
Yes. Because it helps prevent oxidation of food constituents, interacting with free radicals.
What are the common volatiles present in fruits and vegetables?
Esters, alcohols, acids, and carbonyl compounds (aldehydes and ketones)
Are fruits and vegetables living creatures?
YES!
True or False
Fruits and vegetables cease living after being harvested or detached from its parent plant.
False.
A produce still lives as it continues to perform most metabolic reactions and maintain the physiological systems present when it was still attached to the plant.
How does fruits and vegetables perform respiration?
They take up oxygen and give of CO2 and heat.
What is lost when plants transpire?
Water.
Explain how respiration works and how it causes deterioration of fruits and vegetables.
Respiration gives off CO2 and heat while transpiration is basically the plant losing water. These processes occur simultaneously in the living plant and even after harvesting.
Now, the losses due to these processes are continuously replaced from the flow of sap of the parent plant, which contains water or photosynthates (sucrose and amino acids) and minerals. The moment the produce is removed from a source of water, it is now left to depend on its own food reserves and moisture content.
Losses of respirable substrates and moisture are not replaced and deterioration begins.
This is the physiological development stage where cell division and cell enlargement occurs, producing the final size of the produce.
Cell growth
The development phase that already starts even before growth stops.
Maturation
It is the physiological development stage where ageing and death of tissue occurs. The anabolic (synthetic) biochemical process gives way to catabolic (degradative) process in this part.
Senescence
True or False
The development and maturation of fruit can proceed even after it is detached from the parent plant.
False.
True or False
Ripening and senescence may proceed either on the plant or off of it.
True.
Do vegetables undergo ripening?
No.
True or False
Vegetables are harvested over a wide range of physiological stages: before maturation and before senescence.
True
What is the common substrate for respiration?
Glucose
It is the fundamental process whereby living organisms carry out the exothermic conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy. It is the oxidative breakdown of complex materials such as starch, sugars, and organic acids into CO2 and water and energy.
Respiration
The two kinds of respiration.
Aerobic and Anaerobic (fermentation)
