The invasive brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is an important pest of field crops, fruit orchards, commercial vegetables, ornamental plants, and home vegetable gardens. Pheromone-baited traps designed to attract, trap, and kill H. halys are marketed for use in home gardens to reduce damage to plants. To test this assertion, we conducted the followi...

Organically grown products experienced a doubling in percent penetration of organic sales into retail markets during the period from 1997 to 2003; however, there is still a debate over the perceived quality advantage of organically grown fruits and vegetables. In a study focusing on commercial production of processing tomatoes, samples were analyzed from 4 growers with matched organic and conve...

Approximately 75% of all tomatoes in the United States are consumed as processed and 25% as fresh. One of the first steps during processing involves removal of the peel and, unfortunately, more than 25% of the fruits (as measured by total weight) can be lost due to overpeeling. Additionally, conventional peeling applications have a negative environmental impact. Given the great potential econom...

The objective of this study was to develop a nondestructive method to evaluate chemical components such as moisture content (MC), pH, and soluble solid content (SSC) in intact tomatoes by using hyperspectral imaging in the range of 1000–1550 nm. The mean spectra of the 95 matured tomato samples were extracted from the hyperspectral images, and multivariate calibration models were built by using...

OBJECTIVE To examine how increasing vegetable consumption from foods prepared at home (FAH) and foods prepared away from home (FAFH) would impact energy, dietary fibre and Na (sodium) intakes in the U.S.A. DESIGN Using data from the 2003–2004 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, dietary intake data from two separate days were fitted with a first-difference (fixed-effects) mo...

Serum lycopene is inversely related to the risk for cancer and cardiovascular diseases. We used data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994, to investigate the relation between serum lycopene concentrations and sex, age, geographical location, race-ethnicity, education, alcohol, smoking, BMI, blood pressure, serum total cholesterol and triacylglycerol, and in...