Eisberg- und Romanasalate stellen für viele Betriebe eine Hersausforderung dar

Food safety plays a key role for fresh-cut fruit and vegetables. This is due to the fact that enzymatic and microbial processes that lead to food spoilage start immediately after fruit and vegetables are cut. A particular challenge is that fresh-cut fruit and vegetables are in most cases intended for raw consumption without prior cooking. This is in contrast to meat, for example, which is usually heated before consumption in order to kill any microorganisms. So if fresh-cut fruit and vegetables are eaten raw, they become a highly sensitive product that has to be produced under excellent hygiene conditions and very effective production processes.

​

What is “fresh-cut”?

​

“Fresh-cut”, also known as ‘convenience fruit and vegetables’, is the general term used to describe fruit and vegetables that have been cut and/or peeled without undergoing further processing steps such as cooking, pasteurization, freezing or similar. The best example of fresh-cut products are fresh fruit salads and (green) ready-made salads, which are available from almost all retailers and supermarkets. However, fresh-cut also plays a major role in the gastronomy and communal catering sectors, as many restaurants, canteens, cafeterias, etc. use pre-cut fruit and vegetables. A more precise legal definition can be found in the [Definition] section, which is of particular interest to quality management and product development specialists.

​

What options are there for Fresh-Cut?

However, keeping fresh-cut fruit and vegetables fresh is much more complex. It is more complex, as the products require continuous cooling to below 5 °C and perish much faster than whole fruit and vegetables. Furthermore, the structural and enzymatic decay of the products occurs quickly after fruit and vegetables have been cut. This is best illustrated by the oxidation (brown discoloration) of apples, which is also familiar from everyday household use. There are various ways to stop this, which are already being used in the industry.

​

Gassing and modified atmosphere (oxygen, CO₂, nitrogen)

​

The use of modified atmospheres is widely known in the food industry and is used for many products. For example, modified atmospheres are used for packaged meat, but modified atmospheres are also generally used for ready-made salads sold in food retailers. This is usually an air mixture in which the oxygen content has been reduced to below 5% to prevent oxidation of the cut edges. However, this technique does not work for all fresh-cut varieties. Apples, avocados and eggplants, for example, need to be treated with an antioxidant, as the use of modified atmosphere alone is not sufficient to prevent the products from oxidizing. Some types of lettuce, such as iceberg and romaine lettuce, can also tend to oxidize despite modified atmosphere and must therefore be (additionally) treated with an antioxidant.

​

Antioxidants

​

Antioxidants are a special category of food additives. They can be found in category E3 of the EU database for food additives. These are in the vast majority of cases. What is safe? And can therefore be used for fresh-cut fruit and vegetables without a maximum quantity restriction according to EU regulations. A fundamental distinction is made here with preservatives, which are in food category e 200. Preservatives are usually very aggressive chemicals, which are allowed to be used in food by the EU due to a maximum quantity restriction.

​

Preservatives, e.g. sulphur in wine

​

Preservatives may only be used to a very limited extent in fresh-cut products. One of the few examples is peeled potatoes, where a small amount of sulphur may be used to protect them from oxidation and spoilage. Another example is horseradish, where sulphur may also be used. Legislation has generally prohibited the use of sulphur and other preservatives since the 1990s. This applies to all products that are to be eaten raw by the consumer and are not re-cooked or otherwise heated.

​

Coating

​

In the last one to two years in particular, the term “coating” has attracted a great deal of media attention and gained in importance. However, these so-called coatings are products that are only approved for whole fruit and vegetables and are not used in the fresh-cut sector. In principle, coatings have been around for a very long time, as the legislator has provided for a number of additives for coating fruit and vegetables, which have been widely used for decades and are sometimes applied directly after harvesting. We know this from apples, for example, which are coated with a layer of wax. Beeswax is a food additive that has been officially approved by the EU as a coating. Some of the coatings that have recently come onto the market are new substances that have yet to be approved by the EU or are mixtures of already approved additives.

​

History of Fresh-Cut

​

Fresh-cut is still a relatively young industry in Europe and especially in Germany. Apples and salads were processed here for the first time in the 1990s. However, the processing of peeled potatoes, which are still one of the most important Fresh-Cut products today, started a few decades earlier. Fresh-cut has been produced on a large scale in the USA since the 1970s and 1980s. There are now many companies there that provide a wide range of fresh-cut products. 

​

​This is mainly due to the high demand from local food retailers. However, schools in particular also buy large quantities of apple slices to feed their pupils. In Germany, on the other hand, fresh-cut products are often intermediate products for the food processing industry. For example, peeled apples are mainly used by bakeries as a filling for apple pies and peeled potatoes are primarily used by the catering and communal catering industries as a raw product to save on labor. One exception is ready-made salads, which also make up the majority of fresh-cut products available in food retailers in Germany. What most countries have in common, however, is that fresh-cut is a continuously growing product segment everywhere, as it saves consumers time when preparing food and thus significantly increases the “convenience” factor when cooking.

​