May 7, 2025

Georgia study examining non-fresh market fruit

The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (GFVGA) is looking into how products can be developed from culls or non-No. 1 fresh fruit.

The LaGrange, Georgia-based GFVGA has secured funding to study the development of ingredient and consumer products from non-fresh market quality or surplus fruit.

The grower survey is a collaboration between the GFVGA and the University of Georgia (UGA) College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES). It involves watermelons, blueberries, peaches and citrus inventories.

Jim Gratzek, director of the UGA/CAES Food Processing Innovation Center in Griffin, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, will lead a team of food science researchers designing scenarios of mobile and fixed processing infrastructures capable of servicing all four commodities.

Strategies are designed to manage the project for GFVGA and conduct the related business development feasibility study, according to a news release.

Growers are encouraged to participate in the survey. Survey participants are requested to answer survey questions based on the last three crop years from 2022 to 2024.