Source: CORNELL UNIVERSITY submitted to
BENEFITS OF AND BARRIERS TO DYNAMIC CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERE (DCA) STORAGE: ANALYSES NEEDED FOR TECHNOLOGY UPTAKE BY THE U.S. APPLE INDUSTRY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1031509
Grant No.
2023-51181-41320
Cumulative Award Amt.
$3,302,474.00
Proposal No.
2023-05658
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 15, 2023
Project End Date
Sep 14, 2027
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[SCRI]- Specialty Crop Research Initiative
Project Director
Watkins, C.
Recipient Organization
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
ITHACA,NY 14853
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The goal of this project is to advance the safe adoption of dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA) storage, a recent advance in CA technology that is based on the principle of lowering O2 concentrations to the lowest tolerated by the fruit without causing injury, thereby reducing or eliminating quality loss associated with ripening storage by the US apple industry. A team of researchers with backgrounds in horticultural, sensory, economics, and omic sciences will address factors identified by the industry advisory committee with 5 objectives: 1) To develop best management practices for handling DCA stored apple fruit, especially premium and emerging cultivars, to reduce chemical inputs, maximize quality, and minimize the risk of storage-related disorders; 2. Understand how the extreme modification of oxygen by DCA affects respiratory metabolism, ripening biology, and disorder development of stored apple fruit; 3. Understand how modifications in ripening biology resulting from DCA storage are perceived and valued in consumer sensory testing and by storage practitioners; 4. Create a decision support tool, based on analyses of economic and sociological factors, to inform investment in DCA technology; and 5. Translate research findings into communication outputs for postharvest and horticultural scientific, educational, and practitioner communities.
Animal Health Component
70%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
70%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
5031110102060%
5031110309020%
5031110301020%
Knowledge Area
503 - Quality Maintenance in Storing and Marketing Food Products;

Subject Of Investigation
1110 - Apple;

Field Of Science
3090 - Sensory science (human senses); 3010 - Economics; 1020 - Physiology;
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to provide the knowledge that will allow the safe adoption of dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA) storage technology where it is most useful in United States (US) apple industry. The goal will be met by work in five objectives.Objective 1: The development of best management practices for handling DCA treated fruit will integrate information generated from biological, sensory, and economic data from research objectives 2, 3, and 4, respectively. We will evaluate options for atmosphere establishment, temperature control and plant growth regulator interactions in apple storage management as they relate to successful DCA implementation. Additional data collected from research in objectives 2-4 will then be used to flesh out management practices for apple storage under DCA, adding new insights and recommendations to optimize fruit quality and production efficiency.Objective 2: Fruit metabolic responses to low O2, elevated CO2, and ethylene action will be investigated using state-of-the-art analyses. The determination of the lower O2 limit (LOL) or anaerobic compensation point (ACP) and its year-to-year and regional variability will be measured for both traditional and premium cultivars. Low O2 levels will be applied in combination with a range in CO2 concentrations to understand the interplay between these two gases. Volatile (aroma-related) and non-volatile metabolite analyses will link to sensory analyses of Obj. 3.Objective 3: The degree to which stressful atmospheres impact the perception of visual, olfactory, taste, and textural quality attributes will be determined and described both quantitatively and qualitatively for fruit given storage treatments as outlined in Obj. 1. Consumer panel evaluations will be interwoven with metabolite (Obj. 2) and fruit quality (Obj. 1) analyses to permit us to define the advantages and limitations of this new technology.Objective 4: The primary economic objective is to evaluate the costs and benefits associated with the adoption of the DCA storage technology for the U.S. apple industry. We will use information from best management practices for DCA stored apple (Obj. 1), DCA effects on metabolites related to apple quality in storage (Obj. 2) and consumer sensory perceptions (Obj. 3) to assess benefits. We will use a dynamic cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the economic implications of adoption eastern and western US storage operators. In addition, we will conduct a series of market simulations using an equilibrium displacement model to assess the potential market effects throughout the supply chain.Objective 5: The translation of information generated by this project to industry stakeholders and scientific peers will employ print and web-based platforms to disseminate educational bulletins and other outreach products. Important among the outputs is a decision support tool that will assist storage entities in decisions related to technology uptake. We will conduct both general and targeted online and in-person formal extension programs, including industry stakeholder discussions, in association with each cooperator institution. We will direct newsworthy outcomes to regional and national fruit industry-oriented print and online media.
Project Methods
Objective 1Fruit maturity: Ten fruit per replicate in each experiment will be used for measurement of harvest indices - internal ethylene concentration, firmness, titratable acidity, soluble solids content, delta absorbance, and starch pattern index using standard laboratory procedures.Fruit quality: External and internal defects and physiological disorders will be assessed visually, counting the number of fruit affected and severity in some cases. Internal defects will be recorded after cutting the fruit transversely at the equator. Aroma headspace volatiles for whole fruit will be quantified using analysis by GC/MS. For a given treatment combination, 5 individual fruits will be selected, placed singly into inert, sealed chambers and the headspace sampled by solid phase microextraction after a 20-min incubation period at 20 °C. For aroma recovery analysis, fruit will be analyzed weekly until aroma production maximizes. We will predict the impact of aroma on sensory perception using descriptors, known odor impact thresholds and ester abundance and correlate with off-aroma reports from sensory analysis.1-MCP treatment: Fruit will be cooled to a target temperature appropriate for each cultivar/subobjective, and treated with 1-MCP [1 µL L-11-MCP (SmartFresh tablets, 3.8% a.i., AgroFresh Co., Spring House, PA or EasyfreshTM, 3.3% a.i., Fine Americas, Walnut Creek, CA) for 24 h in a 4000-L plastic tent using a release and fan system].Mineral Analysis: A composite sample of 5-7 fruit per replicate (taken at harvest) for each growing environment will be used for this analysis. Fruit peel will be removed from the equator and oven-dried at 60°C for 3 days. After that time, tissue will be pulverized and homogenized, and 200 mg per sample used for digestion in HNO3. Minerals will be determined by microwave-induced plasma atomic emission spectrometry (MP-AES).Lab Pod RQ: Lab Pods will be run using SCS 6000 integrated hardware and software. Atmosphere establishment will be programmed to generate desired oxygen and CO2levels. Respiration and RQ measurements followed by pO2and pCO2adjustment will take place daily. Data will be stored locally and in the cloud on the SCS 6000 and SCS secure servers, respectively.HarvestWatchTM: HarvestWatch FIRM sensors will be placed in CA chambers. O2levels will in the chambers be manipulated and the Favalues tracked to determine the LOL/ACP and the desired O2setpoint.Objective 2Profiling metabolism during O2adjustment for ACP determination. Profiling experiments will track differences in metabolite profiles at 5 selected timepoints during the O2pull-down period for determination of the ACP. All timepoint/treatment combinations will be represented by 5 or more biological replications. Most samples will be sourced from DCA storage at WA, MI, and NY laboratories. Tissue sampling has to occur without disrupting the pO2determination. Consequently, multiple chambers, using any one DCA monitoring technology, will be used for imposing the treatment condition, with different chambers being accessed on each of the 5 timepoints during and after DCA target pO2establishment. For each timepoint, fruit from 1 chamber will be removed, sampled, and stabilized/frozen within 10 minutes of removal. Subsequent chambers will be sampled for additional timepoints. Five biological replications will be sampled from 18-20 fruit (composite samples of 3-4 fruit). Cortex tissue will be sampled by flash freezing in LN2, shipped to WA on dry ice, and stored at -80 °C until metabolic profile analysis (Leisso et al., 2015). This tissue will be for used for metabolite profiling (see below).Elevated pCO2: Focused pCO2/pO2combination experiments will be performed at the WA and MI locations. Cortex tissue will be sampled by flash freezing in LN2, shipped to WA on dry ice, and stored at -80 °C until metabolic profiling.Metabolic (including volatile) profiling: Metabolic profile of apple tissue will be analyzed using 3 different extractions and combinations of GC-MS and LC-MS to provide a less biased analysis of over 800 metabolites in the pome fruit metabolome. Metabolite information will be extracted from mass spectral chromatograms using deconvolution and identification protocols. Methods for unbiased profiling are based on methods used in the USDA laboratory.Global data analysis: To model metabolomic impacts, analysis of metabolite data will employ a variety of techniques with the general goal of associating metabolic events with experimental inputs over time course studies. Metabolic profiles can be analyzed alone or together using appropriate univariate and multivariate analyses as well as network modeling as required by dimensionality.Objective 3Eight sensory tests per year will assay fruit from experiments outlined in Objective 2 to test consumer response to appearance, texture, flavor, aftertaste/residual, purchase intent, and the respondents' overall liking of the samples. Fruit will be tested on 2 separate removal dates, to investigate medium and long-term storage regimes. A total of 140 panelists will be recruited, to account for up to N = 20 panelist attrition over the course of the study. Samples will be assessed using the Quartermaster corps. 9-point hedonic scale for overall and individual attribute liking, as well as perceived importance of chemical-free labeling, all of which can be vital in determining purchase intent. After liking questions, JAR scaling of flavor and texture attributes will be combined with overall liking of the samples to generate penalty analysis graphs for all treatments, thus determining the impact of any off-flavors or textural deficits on consumers' purchase intent.Objective 4"In what ways and to what extent does DCA improve the economic standing of those who implement this technology?" will be addressed. We will develop a framework to characterize the changes in costs and benefits from using DCA relative to other systems of storage. We will conduct the analysis for multiple scenarios that include specific cultivars (e.g., 'Gala', 'Honeycrisp', and 'Cosmic Crisp'), different sized storage operations, and for storage operations located in different regions. We will draw on information to describe the changes in annual costs associated with DCA use, changes in fruit quality and fruit loss in storage, and details about consumer preferences for fruit stored in DCA.Objective 5Survey development and implementation. Prior to the initiation of storage work, surveys will be developed to answer the question: "How does the level of familiarity of storage operators with DCA in each region change following implementation of this project?" We will document the expectation of storage operators regarding responses of fruit to the treatments that will be applied throughout the course of these studies We will engage with current DCA practitioners and non-practitioners to document their current understanding of what might constitute best management practices for DCA. At the conclusion of the project, a similar survey instrument will be used to determine shifts in clientele awareness and knowledge regarding DCA.DCA Best Management Guide development.The development of best management practices for integration of DCA technology will integrate information generated from biological, sensory, and economic data collected throughout the project. The data collected from research on objectives 1 to 4 will then be used to flesh out any management practices currently in place, adding new insights and recommendations for practices to optimize fruit quality and production efficiency.

Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience has been growers and storage operators, primarily in the three major apple growing regions of the USA, Michigan, New York and Washington, but includes individuals from other states who attended meetings. Attendance at the CA Clinic held in Muskegon was 95. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Although the amount of definitive information that was available from the first year of the project was limited, all current results were presented at the Michigan State University Controlled Atmosphere Clinic held on July 17, 2024, one national, and two international meetings. The project involves the training and professional development of 4 postdocs and 1.5 PhD students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The Advisory team of key stakeholders in Michigan, New York and Washington has been assembled. The first meeting of the Advisory Team with the scientists in this program was held in Muskegon on July 17, 2024. In addition, results have been shared at the Michigan State University Controlled Atmosphere Clinic(July 18, 2024) that was held juxtaposed to the Advisory Team meeting, the annual meeting of the American Society for Horticultural Science, and an international conference. Beaudry, R., and Horzum, O.2024. CA, DCA, and 1-MCP: storage duration and arome recovery in apples. MSU CA Clinic: Michigan State University, Muskegon, MI (Jul. 17, 2024). Beaudry, R., Horzum, O. 2024..Storing 'Evercrisp' underCA and DCA.MSU CA Clinic: Michigan State University, Muskegon, MI (Jul. 17, 2024). Horzum, Ö., J. Xu, N. Sugimoto, and R. Beaudry. 2024. Apple ripening after DCA storage: Assessing the risk of flavor loss. Annual meeting Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci., 29 July - 5 September 23-27, 2024, Honolulu, HI. (oral). Horzum, Ö., J. Xu, N. Sugimoto, and R. Beaudry. 2024. 1-MCP treatment in combination with DCA storage: The potential for loss of aroma in apple. International Postharvest Symposium, Nov. 11-15, Rotorua, New Zealand. Phyu Lwin, H., Amankona, S., Rudell, D., Torres, C.A. 2024. Assessing apple cultivar responses to the the low oxygen Limit determination using chlorophyll fluorescence and respiratory quotient. ASHS Annual Conference. American Society for Horticultural Science (Hawaii, Sept.23- Sept. 27, 2024). Rudell, D. 2024. CO2 sensitivity in pome fruit. MSU CA Clinic: Michigan State University, Muskegon, MI (Jul. 17, 2024). Watkins, C 2024. Gala storage - practical options for improving quality. MSU CA Clinic: Michigan State University, Muskegon, MI (Jul. 17, 2024). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will meet with the Advisory Team will meet in May 2025, associated an international meeting on Controlled Atmosphere Storage in Wenatchee, WA. Several presentations, for both scientific and industry audiences, are planned. Objectives 1-3.The experiments proposed in the project will continue as planned. Objective 4. The analyses for conventionally grown Honeycrisp and Gala will continue. We are also conducting a comprehensive literature review for models aiming to capture the value of dynamic monitoring. The aim is to put together a dynamic optimization model that would capture the value of timely monitoring. Objective 5. The website will be finalized and made publicly available.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1. In NY, investigations into the responses of Gala, Honeycrisp and NY1 to storage regimens were assessed: Controlled Atmosphere (CA) and Dynamic Controlled Atmosphere (DCA); growth regulation included 1-MCP (+/-) & ReTain (+/-); storage temperatures of 33F & 38F; with and without postharvest conditioning; with growing region also assessed. In addition to physical fruit assessments, juice samples of the fruit tissues were prepared and sent to WA (Obj. 2) for assessment of volatiles, andfruit usedfor sensory analyses (Obj. 3). For the 2024 harvest, these experiments have been expanded to investigate the tolerance of Gala apple to low oxygen and high carbon dioxide. In MI, research focus was on EverCrisp. The fruit remained firm under bothair and CA storage, but became overripe in air storage. Storage for up to 10months in CA with and without 3% CO2did not cause injury.CAand DCA maintained firmness better than in air. However, lowtemperatureinjury (brown core) became very evident in some orchards after 6 months storage. Using the responses to oxygen, O2concentrations of 0.2 % and 0.5 % were compared with DCA (0.6 and 0.9 % O2).We compared these O2concentrations to standard CA (1.5and 3% O2) and air (21% O2).For every oxygen level, fruit wereexposed to0.5, 1.5 and 3% CO2. Findings were as follows: Ethyleneproduction was inhibited by CA and DCA, but more by DCA than CA, and recoveryof ethylene was stimulated by CO2; eachorchard had different sensitivities to disorders, indicating significant environmental effects and DCA may have enhanced disorder incidence in sensitive orchards. Objective 2. Different atmospheric compositions comprising different combinations of O2 (0.5, 1, and 3%) and CO2 (0.5, 1, and 3%) were used to determine the impact of O2 on internal browning caused by elevated CO2. 'Fuji', a CO2 sensitive cultivar, was stored at 0.5 ºC for up to 6 months under these CA storage compositions for this test. Disorder development was assessed and cortex tissue sampled at 0, 1, 2, and 4 months. Cortex samples were subsequently processed and analyzed for metabolic markers associated with internal browning risk. Internal browning symptoms became more severe with storage duration and elevated pCO2 in conjunction with depressed pO2 with apples stored in combination of 0.5% O2 and 3%CO2 developing the most severe symptoms. Risk associated metabolic markers include acylated steryl glycosides which are elevated and steryl esters which are depressed with internal browning risk and, more so, in symptomatic tissue. Levels of these phytosterol conjugates reflected the eventual symptom severity. In apples stored in less risky conditions, where browning still developed, phytosterol conjugate levels indicated risk prior to symptom development. Results demonstrate that low O2 elevates CO2 sensitivity. This increase of sensitivity can be detected in metabolic changes prior to symptom development. DCA storage suppresses the ripening of apple fruit during storage to a greater extent than CA storage. DCA is a relatively new technology, and it has the potential to markedly alter the volatile profile of apple fruit. It has been found that DCA storage can suppress the most important aroma volatiles of stored apple fruit. We have determined that the recovery of aroma volatile production wasdelayed by the ethylene action inhibitor 1-MCP and DCA, although the impact of the former was far greater.Additionally, the longer the storageduration, the greater the suppression of volatiles and the longer the time required for their recovery. Apple fruit from high-value cultivars were stored under a DCA regimen (approximately 0.4% O2), with and without 1-MCP treatment, for 3, 6, and 9 months. Following removal of fruit from DCA, the volatile profile and fruit quality traits were measured for up to 5 weeks while being held at room temperature. The recovery of aroma formation following storage for 6 months was essentially immediate for 'Red Delicious' fruit if 1-MCP was not used. The recovery was a little slower for one of the replicate studies if DCA was used. If the fruit were treated with 1-MCP, there was a 2-week delay in the recovery of aroma formation. EverCrisp aroma formation was much lower than Red Delicious and the responses to DCA and 1-MCP differed from that of Red Delicious. Aroma formation remained very low for 3 to 4 weeks at room temperature following CA and DCA storage and never recovered following 1-MCP treatment for the 5-week duration of the study. The data for aroma formation after 9 months was similar to that at the 6-month time point for 'Red Delicious' in terms of 1-MCP responses. However, the effect of DCA seemed to be more pronounced, suppressing aroma recovery for an additional week at room temperature. For EverCrisp, the 9-month data were quite similar to those from 6 months storage. Objective 3.Sensory testing of a number of treatments across 3 cultivars was carried out in June and July of 2024. This encompassed 7 Central Location consumer sensory tests at the Cornell Sensory Evaluation Center in Ithaca, NY. The total sample size across the testing was N = 536 partially overlapping panelists, recruited to be regular consumers of the cultivar in question, over 18, non-smokers, not pregnant, no food allergies, no taste or smell deficiencies. Panelists assessed overall liking, appearance liking, aroma liking, flavor liking, texture liking, color, sweetness, sourness, firmness, skin toughness, mealiness, and several other sensory factors. The cultivars tested were Honeycrisp, NY1 and Gala (Obj1), were used for individual factor comparisons. For Gala samples from the Champlain region, lower storage temperatures contributed to significantly higher scores for Overall Liking, Aroma Liking, and Flavor Liking, with slight differences in perceived Sweetness & Sourness. Flesh color varied with storage temperature, and also across growing region for Gala. Aftertastes were more often reported at the higher temperature, despite growing region. Honeycrisp samples showed a clear increase in liking scores for samples with 1-MCP treatment in CA, with a trend for those also treated with 1-MCP in DCA. For NY1 samples, DCA store samples exhibited significantly higher rating in Firmness and Crispness, with lower Mealiness ratings, and higher texture liking scores. No strong effect of pre-conditioning was reported by sensory panelists. ReTain provided some improvement in texture liking in NY1, in both CA and DCA treatments, with associated difference in Color, Flesh Color, and higher perceived Crispness. Analysis is ongoing, with further insights to be confirmed as the statistical models are optimized. Objective 4. In WA, assessment of the direct economic implications of adopting DCA for storage operators was carried out. Wedeveloped a framework to characterize the changes in costs and benefits from using DCA relative to other systems of storageusingdata providedby theTorres lab. Work in NY was not initiated until Year 2 as outlined in the project. Objective 5. A website has been developed https://blogs.cornell.edu/appledca/ and will be modified based on the Advisory Team input.

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