Transformation et consommation des fruits et des legumes: priorites de la recherche

摘要

Production and processing of fruits and vegetables are extremely diversified activities. Each activity generates a gross income of about 30 GF in France. New products may be developed by industry, but the large supermarket chains impose in the short and medium terms their views and sometimes their requirements on the others operators of the network. On the other hand, the European consumer demands food products that are high in organoleptic quality, convenient, attractive and safe. Plant tissues have very diverse physiological and biochemical characteristics and they may be subjected to the majority of industrial processes imagined by man. The various combinations of all these processes result in an immense number of finished products potentials, and therefore technical and scientific problems to solve. Raw agricultural products are produced according to their destination. Dualpurpose varieties give way to those that are better adapted to each specific processing process. In other respects, environmental requirements and the reduction farm sudsidies force the producers, especially fruit producers, to find alternatives to crop destruction. Also, during the last 10 years, the landscape of the production and processing of fruits and vegetables, fresh or processed, has been appreciably modified. This evolution has touched the entire food industry: characteristics of raw materials (fresh markets and processing industries), primary and secondary processings, new products. In all cases, the sought after improvements are designed to satisfy economic, qualitative and ecological requirements from consumers and large supermarket chains. This study was conducted with these general considerations in mind. Its main objective is to identify research thrusts that public research must devote the majority of its efforts. The procedure followed has been to build a table of the economic evolution of the sector and to attempt to identify outstanding scientific and technological advances of the last few years, It is on the basis of the information thus assembled that the expert group has ventured to define its priorities.