RADIATION-PASTEURIZING FRESH STRAWBERRIES AND OTHER FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES Estimates of Costs and Benefit

摘要

Radiation-pasteurizing of strawberries would reduce spoilage loss by at least enough to pay the cost of treatment, according to preliminary estimates of costs. Additional savings might be realized because (1) the shelf life would be increased, (2) less in-store culling would be necessary, and (3) use of carbon dioxide gas as a mold inhibitor could be reduced or eliminated. For California strawberries shipped to New York City, the present cost of the carbon dioxide treatment is about 0.3 cent per pound.nConsiderable potential exists for reduction of spoilage loss of fresh peaches, tomatoes, oranges, and grapefruit, but more technical research information is required before estimates of economic feasibility of radiation-pasteurization can be made. The U.S. retail value of recent spoilage losses of these commodities is 0.2 cent to 4.9 cents per pound of shipping weight. Tomatoes are at the top of this range.nTechnical research at the University of California, Davis, reveals that if fresh strawberries are radiation-pasteurized by an optimum dose of 200 kilorads it is possible to hold spoilage losses during marketing to about 5 percent, depending on amount of infection with spoilage organisms at harvest. Accordingly, estimates of spoilage loss savings, on the basis of the recent UoS„ retail price of 45.2 cents per pound, would range from 4.3 to 4.5 cents per pound shipped to market, depending on the extent to which the practice was adopted by the strawberry industry. Savings in this range are substantially more than enough to pay for estimated radiation-pasteurizing costs.