Fresh-Cut Produce Quality & Safety

Packaged, ready-to-eat, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables are providing consumers with unprecedented convenience. The produce is harvested, cleaned, washed with a sanitizer, rinsed, dried, optionally combined with other varieties to prepare salad mixes, packaged in special packages designed to maintain quality, and distributed throughout the country for use by consumers. Because produce deteriorates with time as a result of physiological changes and microbiological action, researchers in governmen…