Fruit and Vegetable Quality

CHAPTER 14

Methods and Examples of Integration

STANLEY E. PRUSSIA

PRINCIPLES

AN integrated view of fruit and vegetable quality requires a systems ap-
proach for reducing losses and improving consumer satisfaction. In gen-
eral, systems are formed by integrating components into a functioning
whole. The components of a system cannot be understood without con-
sidering the system they help to form. Research efforts to improve a sys-
tem have the purpose of changing existing components or designing new
ones. Such changes require an understanding of the new interactions that
will result among components of the changed system and interactions
with other systems.
This chapter uses visual models of systems to clarify the complex in-
teractions of components and systems necessary for providing consumers
with affordable food that has desirable attributes. The process of mak-
ing diagrams draws attention to the flows of product, money, and in-
formation from one system to others. Diagrams also help to visualize
the integration of businesses producing and handling products. Estab-
lished principles are used to determine what properties are necessary for
a group of components to be viewed as a system.
Applications of the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) are presented
to show ways to include the human component in the systems that are
necessary for providing fruits and vegetables to the final consumers. Sys-
tems with humans are considered soft because each person can have a

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