Impact Damage to Selected Agricultural Produce from South Eastern Nigeria.

ABSTRACT

An Impact Test Apparatus was developed to determine the impact damage and bruise parameters of five fresh agricultural produce, namely: banana (Musa spp), tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), sweet potato (Ipomea batatas), cassava tuber (Manihot esculenta) and lemon (Citrus limon) using Impact – Drop Height method. A constant impact energy of 0.9J – 4.5J was maintained as drop heights ranged from 0.20m – 1.00m. The bruise diameter, bruise depth, bruise width, bruise volume, bruise resistance and bruise susceptibility of banana ranged from 10mm – 18mm, 6mm – 8mm, 2mm – 4mm, 62.68mm – 300.87mm, 0.014J/mm – 0.015J/mm, 69.64mm/J – 73.12mm/J. That of tomato ranged from 10 – 26mm, 6 – 6.5mm, 2.1 – 5mm, 65.81 – 441.39mm, 0.015 – 0.010J/mm, 73.12 – 98.08mm/J. That of sweet potato ranged from 8mm – 16mm, 4mm – 6mm, 2mm – 6mm, 33.43mm – 300.87mm, 0.02J/mm – 0.014J/mm, 37.14mm/J – 66.86mm/J. That of cassava tuber ranged from 10mm – 16mm, 3mm – 8mm, 2mm – 4mm, 31.34mm – 267.44mm, 0.03J/mm – 0.02J/mm, 38.82mm/J – 59.43mm/J. While that of lemon ranged from 0mm – 7.5mm, 0mm – 4.5mm, 0mm – 5mm, 0mm – 88.14mm, 0J/mm – 0.05J/mm and 0mm/J – 19.58mm/J respectively. Results indicated that bruise parameters increased with impact energy. Tomato has the highest bruise susceptibility, followed by cassava tuber, banana, sweet potato, and lemon, but lemon has the highest bruise resistance. The results would be useful to food processors and engineers in designing packages to reduce impact damage to agricultural produce.

Keywords: Impact energy, Impact damage, Bruise volume, Bruise Resistance, Bruise susceptibility