Fresh fruit consumption positively influence on health maintenances, disease prevention and weight management (Badurally et al., 2012). WHO (2002) recommends that the daily intake of fresh fruit and vegetables at 400 g per day, but it falls below the recommended amount in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana stands out among African countries with relatively high average per capita fruit consumption but still at insufficient level (Hall et al., 2009). This paper examines factors that determine the consumption frequency of fresh fruit by urban consumers in Ghana. The illustration is based on three selected fruits: orange, pineapple, and apple. The selection is intended to account for domestically produced fruit, orange and pineapple, and the fruit that is imported, but familiar to many consumers, an apple. The study uses data collected from a survey among urban population in Ghana in 2011. The multivariate probit technique is applied to estimate three probit equations for consumption of three fruit given daily, weekly, or monthly frequency. Results show that daily consumption of all three fruit was strongly influenced by income, and selectively, by the employment status and location. Weekly consumption was influenced by location, employment status, and the level of education as well as household size. Monthly consumption frequency was primarily associated with location factors. Overall, fruit consumption is strongly positively influenced by income, having a government job, reporting at least a secondary level of education, but location and demographic characteristics have variable directional influence on consumption of the three fruit. Improving incomes and education level will lead to increased consumption of the three fruit.

Lysophosphatidylethanolamine (LPE), a natural phospholipid, has been investigated for retarding senescence and promoting the shelf life of fruit and other plant tissues. LPE is a water insoluble phospholipid. For most experimental purposes, LPE is dispersed in water prior to treatment of fruit using sonication. In this study, the water solubility of LPE was improved by mixing it with soy lecithin prior to mixing with water. A combination of LPE and lecithin was used for a dip treatment of banana fruit. Banana fruit at ripening stage 2 (3/4 green) were dipped in this solution for 30min and then stored at room temperature for 10d. A combination of 200mgL−1 LPE and lecithin gave the best shelf life. In this treatment over 75% of the fruit were marketable 7d after treatment. While only about 20% and 28% of the fruit were marketable in the water (control) and lecithin treated-fruit respectively. Fruit treated with lecithin alone had better shelf life as compared to the control. Furthermore, the LPE+lecithin treatment gave better shelf life as compared to the LPE alone treatment. At 7d after dip, fruit treated with LPE+lecithin had lower ion leakage from peel tissue, higher pulp firmness, and thicker peel as compare to the control and lecithin treatments. A dip treatment with NAA (1-naphthalene acetic acid) was compared with LPE+lecithin for fruit marketability and changes in various fruit properties during ripening. Although NAA improved shelf life and retarded fruit softening as compared to the control, this treatment resulted in abnormal de-greening of fruit peel tissue. Fruit treated with LPE+lecithin had normal yellow color development and had lower ethylene production as compared to NAA and control treatments. The results of this study suggest that a dip treatment with a combination of LPE and lecithin may have potential for improving shelf life of banana fruit.

Monitoring of oriental fruit moths (Grapholita molesta Busck) is a prerequisite for its control. This study introduced a digital image-processing method and logistic model for the control of oriental fruit moths. First, five triangular sex pheromone traps were installed separately within each area of 667 m² in a peach orchard to monitor oriental fruit moths consecutively for 3 years. Next, full view images of oriental fruit moths were collected via a digital camera and then subjected to graying, separation and morphological analysis for automatic counting using MATLAB software. Afterwards, the results of automatic counting were used for fitting a logistic model to forecast the control threshold and key control period. There was a high consistency between automatic counting and manual counting (0.99, P < 0.05). According to the logistic model, oriental fruit moths had four occurrence peaks during a year, with a time-lag of 15–18 days between adult occurrence peak and the larval damage peak. Additionally, the key control period was from 28 June to 3 July each year, when the wormy fruit rate reached up to 5% and the trapping volume was approximately 10.2 per day per trap. Additionally, the key control period for the overwintering generation was 25 April. This study provides an automatic counting method and fitted logistic model with a great potential for application to the control of oriental fruit moths.

Fruit drop is a major problem in mango. In order to reduce fruit drop CPPU (Forchlorfenuron) is widely used in fruit industry. To increase fruit retention trial were conducted to evaluate the effect of CPPU (Forchlorfenuron) on fruit retention and postharvest quality of 'Alphonso' mango. The present investigation was carried out in three locations in Konkan region in RBD with five treatments and 4 replications. CPPU was sprayed at a dose of 1, 2, 3, 4 ppm at the peanut and marble stage and water as control. It was observed that CPPU sprayed trees showed significantly more fruit retention and total number of fruit at harvest as compared to the control treatment. The highest yield was recorded in 3 ppm CPPU treatment at Dapoli and Roha and 4 ppm treatment at Rameshwar location. There were no significant effects on quality of fruit of CPPU trees and control fruit.

This behavioral economics experiment shows the effect of different presentation strategies on fruit sales at eleven canteens run by the student services “Studentenwerk Berlin”. The status quo of the presentation of fruit at the participating university canteens is analyzed, recommendations are given and interventions such as posters, an increased offer of fresh fruit desserts and a change in position of fruit bowls to the checkout area are being implemented by the canteen staff afterwards in order to increase fruit sales. Sales data from the checkout system is used to compare the sales of fruit and other desserts in relation to the daily amount of visitors. This pre-post comparison takes place during a four-week intervention period in 2014 and a four-week control period in 2013, as well as a second control period four weeks before the intervention period (control period 2014). While the amount of sold fruit options in relation to the number of overall visitors shall increase, the number of other dessert options in relation to the number of overall visitors should decrease. The experiment results show an increase in fruit sales and a decrease in sales of other desserts at eight out of eleven participating university canteens during the intervention period 2014 compared to the control period 2013. Comparing the intervention period 2014 to the control period 2014, the same result holds for seven out of eleven canteens. This study shows how small and cheap changes in fruit presentation and advertisement can improve fruit consumption and lower the consumption of less healthy dessert options.

Noni fruit is a medicanal plant with biological activity like antimicrobial and antioxidant that could potentially be used as a feed additive in poultry. This research investigated the effect of noni fruit powder as feed additive on intestinal microflora and villi characteristics of hybrid duck. The subjects for this study were one hundred fifty of 2-week-old hybrid duck that were divided into 5 dietary groups, namely P0: basal feed serving as negative control, P1: basal feed + 1 % noni fruit powder, P2: basal feed + 2 % noni fruit powder, P3: basal feed + 3 % noni fruit powder, P4: basal feed supplemented with tetracycline antibiotic (300mg/kg feed) as positive control. Data were analyzed by one-way of Completely Randomized Design and if there was significant effect followed by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test. The result show that levels of noni fruit powder significantly influence (P<0.01) intestinal microflora. Total Escherichia coli of intestinal microflora was decreasing, however total Lactic acid bacteria was equal to negative control. Intestinal villi characteristics show that significantly different (P<0.01) with used noni fruit powder. Treatment noni fruit powder 1% can increase villus length and villus surface area.   (Key words: Duck, Intestinal changes, Noni Fruit, Phytobiotic)

Prohexadione-Ca (P-Ca) is a plant bioregulator that has an anti-GA action and that is primarily used to control vegetative growth in apple trees. GAs beside stimulating shoot internode length when applied during the early period of fruit development might induce a larger fruit which also indicates that GAs might play a role in cell growth in apple fruit. Until now the combined application of P-Ca and GAs was not recommended because of the possibility of mutual reduction of their actions. Recently preliminary trials carried out on apple indicate the fruit thinning potential of the P-Ca and GA4+7 tank-mix. The tank mix of P-Ca as Regalis® (10% W.G. formulation) and GA4+7 as Novagib was applied at different phenological stages on apples 'Braeburn Mariri Red' trees: at full bloom (BBCH 65) and at 6/8 mm diameter of king fruit (BBCH 71), 10/12 mm diameter of king fruit (BBCH 72) and 14/16 mm diameter of king fruit (BBCH 72). The concentration of P-Ca was 100 mg L-1 and GA4+7 10 mL L-1. Data were compared with untreated control trees. In this experiment the P-Ca and GA4+7 tank-mix did not cause any thinning effect at all the tested treatments. Unexpectedly the fruit set was even better in the treated trees than control, and, although the higher number of fruit, the fruit quality was not compromised. The combined use of P-Ca and GA4+7 resulted in a larger size of fruits than control. These results might be related to the vegetative growth control caused by P-Ca and the consequent limited competition vs. the developing fruits and to a direct effect of GA4+7 application that might have increased fruit growth.

Effect of exogenous nitric oxide (NO) on polyamines (PAs) catabolism, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt, proline accumulation and chilling injury of banana fruit under cold storage was investigated. Banana fruit treated with NO sustained lower chilling injury index than the control. Notably elevated nitric oxide synthetase activity and endogenous NO level were observed in NO-treated banana fruit. PAs contents in treated fruit were significantly higher than control fruit, due to the elevated activities of arginine decarboxylase and ornithine decarboxylase. NO treatment increased the activities of diamine oxidase, polyamine oxidase and glutamate decarboxylase, while reduced GABA transaminase activity to lower levels compared with control fruit, which resulted the accumulation of GABA. Besides, NO treatment upregulated proline content and significantly enhanced the ornithine aminotransferase activity. These results indicated that the chilling tolerance induced by NO treatment might be ascribed to the enhanced catabolism of PAs, GABA and proline.

The effects of short-term nitrogen (N₂) treatment on fruit quality and respiratory enzymes of Yali pear (Pyrus bretschneideri Rehd.) were investigated. Fruit were N₂ shocked by exposing them to N₂ for 48 h, and then stored at 0–1°C under ambient atmospheric gas concentrations for 4 months. Results showed that titratable acidity (TA) and total soluble solids (TSS) contents in N₂-shocked fruit were higher than those in control fruit. At the end of storage, the core browning rate in N₂-shocked fruit was 29.9% lower compared to the control. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity was inhibited by N₂-shock treatment during the first 90 days of storage. In addition, N₂-shocked fruit had lower succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity, while cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) activity was induced to high levels compared to the control. N₂-shock treatment may be applied as an alternative technology to extend the shelf life of Yali pear fruit.