El Dr. Alberto Continella de la Università degli Studi di Catania nos visita la próxima semana y aprovechando esta visita nos impartirá la conferencia»Agronomical and postharvest factors influencing qualitative traits of mediterranean fruits”. La conferencia será el próximo martes, día 13 de febrero, en el Aula de Grados del edificio Tudemir a las 11:00 h. La conferencia se convalidará por 1 seminario ReTos-AAA, pero os recuerdo la necesidad de rellenar el correspondiente informe.

Aquí os paso un pequeño resumen de la conferencia:

The awareness of consumers on the importance of food safety and of potential benefits of many fruit and vegetable derived products are, more and more, driving the interest of research institutes and food industries to deepen the knowledge on the quality of raw materials for fresh or processed use or to design food products enriched with nutraceutical substances. Several factors influence composition and quality of food products in pre- and post-harvest stages, such as cultivar and rootstock, agronomical techniques and storage conditions. The possibility to enhance the synthesis of some chemical compounds, in particular nutraceuticals (flavonoids, such as phenols and anthocyanins) is an important strategy in order to obtain foods with high functional activity.

The main topic of the seminar will be the evaluation of agronomical and postharvest factors that can influence the qualitative and nutraceutical traits of two important fruit products i.e. blood oranges and pomegranates. These fruits are characterized by a high anthocyanin content greatly appreciated by the consumers for their nutraceutical properties.