Fruit and Vegetable Quality

CHAPTER 16

A More Integrated View

ROBERT L. SHEWFELT

LEOPOLD M. M. TIJSKENS

INTRODUCTION

THIS book is a product of an international conference held in Potsdam
to look for greater integration of fruit and vegetable research from crop
production to postharvest physiology to quality evaluation to econom-
ics. The general conclusions of the conference were that there are many
ways to view fresh fruits and vegetables, that research efforts could be
enhanced through greater integration of approaches, but that there are
many barriers to greater integration. One of the primary barriers is that
of terminology, particularly with respect to quality and acceptability.
The problem appears not to be a lack of common terms, but rather that
the same terms are used from many perspectives but with important dif-
ferences in meaning. This chapter seeks to bring together different per-
spectives on these topics to highlight areas of common ground, describe
points of contention and propose a series of guidelines that would fa-
cilitate greater integration between studies and approaches.

Quality

Many definitions of quality appear in this book as shown in Table
16.1. The standard definitions of fitness for use (Juran, 1974, cited by
Tijskens, 1999) or purpose (Simmonds, 1979, cited by Pecher and von
Oppen, 1999) and conformance to requirements (Crosby, 1979, cited by

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