S294 - Participant Bio

Diane M. Barrett

Title: Fruit & Vegetable Products Specialist

Institution : Dept. Food Science, UC Davis

Commodities : tomatoes, peaches, pears, melons, potatoes, carrots, olives, apples, green beans, corn, broccoli, lettuce

Research topics: Effects of raw material characteristics (variety, maturity, color, texture, flavor etc.) and processing (canning, aseptic processing, dehydration, freezing, fresh cut processing) on quality (color, flavor, texture, nutritional quality) of fruit & vegetable products. Particular emphasis on enzyme catalyzed reactions leading to quality changes; specific enzymes of interest include polyphenol oxidase, lipoxygenase, pectin methyl esterase, polygalacturonase, peroxidase and amylase. Also interested in textural properties of fruits & vegetables, as measured using texture analyzers, turgor pressure and individual cell firmness. Finally, some work on antioxidant properties of phenolic and carotenoid compounds.

Instrumentation : uv/vis spectrophotometer, Texture Analyzer turgor pressure probe, superspeed centrifuge, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, transmission and scanning electron microscope, HPLC, GC

e-mail: dmbarrett@ucdavis.edu

	[Link to Home Page] Current Officers: Past Chair: Yuagang Luo (LuoY@ba.ars.usda.gov) Chair: Peter Toivanen (ToivonenP@AGR.GC.CA) Vice Chair: Aubrey F. Mendonca (amendon@iastate.edu) Secretary: Xuetong Fan (xfan@errc.ars.usda.gov) Webmaster: Mary Reed (postharvest@ucdavis.edu)