Bruising in Avocado (Persea americana M.) ‘HASS' Supply Chains in Queensland Australia: Ripener to Retailer

The avocado fruit cv. Hass supply chains in Queensland Australia are designed and practiced to meet the quality standards demanded by the consumers.  The industry players implement a whole of the supply chain system, equipped with systems to ensure that the fruit quality delivered to their buyer is the same what they receive from their supplier, up until the retail.  The quality losses at each stage in the supply chain are recorded for continuous improvements in the system.  However, the quantitative losses, in terms of flesh bruising have never been documented in the ‘through the supply chain’ context.  The incidence and severity of flesh bruising in ripening avocado fruit cv. Hass, as it travelled through the supply chain, has been described in this paper.  The objective of this research was to identify where and how much flesh bruising does occur at different stages in the supply chain, from the ripener to the retailer.  Fruit samples at serial sampling points (ripener arrival, ripener dispatch, distribution centre arrival, distribution centre dispatch, retail store arrival, and the retail display) along the supply chain were collected and destructive bruising assessment was conducted after 48 h.  The results of two consecutive years of research established that the flesh bruising increased as the fruit travelled through the supply chain and it reached at maximum level at the retail display, which was significantly higher than at the previous sampling point.  Based on the findings of this experiment, critical points in the supply chains contributing to bruising the avocado fruit cv. Hass have been identified.  Further research is recommended to quantify the incidence of bruising in cv. Hass due to the handling practices of shoppers and consumers.