fresh

Keeping Fresh Fruit Marketable

Ernie Neff Fresh

Mark Ritenour with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) discusses research efforts to keep Florida’s fresh fruit marketable. Ritenour is a postharvest horticulturist at the Indian River Research and Education Center. Ritenour begins with maximum residue limit requirements for chemicals in fresh citrus for export. A UF/IFAS website provides pesticide residue limits by various major …

Fresh Fruit Is ‘All About the Box’

Ernie Neff Fresh

Polk County grower Ed Dickinson has good things to say about some orange-mandarin juice and fresh mandarins he sampled at the Citrus Research and Education Center (CREC) in November. Dickinson was one of dozens who tried new University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) samples. He and others who scored the juice and fruit will help researchers …

mandarin

Evaluating Fresh Mandarins and Oranges

Ernie Neff Fresh

Mark Ritenour with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) reports on evaluations of new fresh mandarin and sweet orange selections. Ritenour is a professor at the Indian River Research and Education Center in Fort Pierce. Ritenour lists four mandarin varieties that had “100 percent healthy fruit” after six or seven weeks in storage, even without being …

Putting Fresh Fruit to the Test

Tacy Callies Fresh, fruit

Quality and shelf life were evaluated for new fresh mandarin and sweet orange selections. By Mark A. Ritenour, Cuifeng Hu, Yu Wang and Fernando Alferez New fresh citrus fruit selections continue to be developed and released by the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, promising new varieties are …

fresh

A Talk on the Fresh Side

Ernie Neff Fresh

Greg Nelson, president of Egan Fruit Packing in Fort Pierce, Florida, summarizes the status of the fresh citrus industry and discusses opportunities for the future. “We’ve seen a slight decline in fresh orange consumption over the past 20 years, but a more significant, dramatic decline in fresh grapefruit consumption,” Nelson says. “But a lot of that is driven by lack …

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Fresh Citrus Shipments Continue to Drop; CAC Elections Coming

Ernie Neff Fresh

Fresh citrus shipments from Florida so far in the 2017–18 citrus season have fallen 37 percent below the previous season, reports Citrus Administrative Committee (CAC) Manager Duke Chadwell. “And that percentage has held true from the beginning of the season up until now,” he says. “However, I do anticipate as we move forward that that percentage is going to grow. …

fresh

Some Fresh Citrus Problems Begin in the Grove

Ernie Neff Fresh

Some fresh citrus problems arise or can be addressed in the packinghouse; others must be dealt with earlier, in the grove. University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researcher Mark Ritenour discusses three problems that must be addressed in the grove. They are peel breakdown, fruit decay and pesticide residues. Ritenour summarizes a presentation he made at this …

fresh

Fresh Citrus Minimum Sizes Reduced

Ernie Neff Fresh

The minimum size requirement for fresh Florida oranges and grapefruit was recently reduced. The Citrus Administrative Committee (CAC), which manages a federal marketing order for fresh Florida citrus, requested the change. The minimum orange size was reduced from 2.5 to 2.25 inches in diameter. The grapefruit reduction was from 3 and five-sixteenths inches to 3 inches. CAC Manager Duke Chadwell …

Fresh

Fresh Fruit: Challenges and Changes

Ernie Neff Fresh

Florida’s fresh citrus industry has suffered even more from HLB than has the much larger juice industry. Duke Chadwell, manager of the Citrus Administrative Committee (CAC), discusses pending organizational changes in the fresh industry, brought on primarily by HLB. The CAC administers a federal marketing order for fresh Florida citrus that has been in place since 1939. “The Citrus Administrative …