S17

Isabel Abadias, Spain ; Susanne Baldermann, Germany ; Jessica Cooperstone, USA ; ZhanWu Dai,China ; Anne-Laure Fanciullino, France ; Desta Bekele, Ethiopia ; David Page, France ; Cherubino Leonardi, Italy ; Bart Nicolai, Belgium ; Ingrid Aguilo, Spain ; Nazim Gruda, Germany ; Bhimu Patil, USA

The quality of fruits and vegetables is the complex output of growth and metabolic processes, which build in a dynamic way during plant development, organ storage and processing until consumption. Whether consumed fresh or processed, many factors, such as agronomic, genetic or technological are involved and interact during an organ’s life. This symposium will bring together scientists from different disciplines to share their perspectives and approaches for optimizing F&V quality and to present new integrated research linking pre- and post-harvest management and processing with quality. The symposium will cover all dimensions of F&V quality (e.g. nutritional, organoleptic, commercial, safety…etc.,) from field to fork, with the goals of improving the composition of hedonic and health related compounds.

The following topics will be developed during the symposium :

• Genetic diversity, environmental factors and growing practices to optimize the quality of fresh and processed products in the context of global change. This topic will discuss multidisciplinary research on F&V quality created in the field in response to environmental fluctuations and eventual stresses, in particular in low-input production systems. All scales from gene to plant will be considered.
• Increase food use of F&V products based on quality improvement and monitoring throughout the production chain. This topic will cover all advances and innovations in the F&V chain, with links between production, conservation and processing, including phenotyping, fast analysis methods, nondestructive and prediction tools of quality. Quality may include either usual traits (sensory and biochemical parameters, antioxidant activity…) or traits related to the improvement of new functionality for food (viscosity, aromaticity, health benefits, processability…). The objective is to monitor and improve quality all along the production chain.
• Integrated approaches of F&V quality from field to fork. This topic includes both experimental and modelling approaches to understand mechanisms involved at the interface between production and postharvest technologies in order to optimize the end-product quality and to adapt practices all along the production chain. Multi-scales decision making tools will be included; in this perspective, research on non-horticultural species could be accepted as proof-of-concept.