Sweet cherry is a highly appreciated seasonal fruit with a high content of bioactive compounds; however, this highly perishable fruit has a relatively short shelf-life period. Here, we evaluated the evolution of the physicochemical and sensory qualities of sweet cherries (Prunus avium (L.) cv. Satin) under different storage conditions, namely at a Farmers’ Organization (FO) and in a Research Centre (RC) under normal and four different conditions of controlled atmosphere for 49 days. Additional parameters were monitored, such as rotten fruit incidence and stem appearance. Temperature was the factor that most influenced the fruit quality changes over the study time. In fact, fruits stored at higher mean temperatures showed higher weight loss, higher variation in CIE-Lab colour parameters, higher firmness loss, and browner and more dehydrated stems and were less appealing to the consumer. Controlled atmosphere conditions showed a smaller decrease in CIE-Lab colour parameters and lower weight loss. The incidence of rotting was very low and was always equal or lower than 2% for all conditions. Thus, RC chamber conditions were able to sustain fruit quality parameters over 28 days under normal atmosphere conditions and 49 days under controlled atmosphere conditions.

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Snacks are commonly eaten in western societies and, because of that, have a non-negligible effect on consumers’ health. The main objective of this work was to develop and optimize a snack formulation with sweet cherry, an important crop from the Portuguese region of Beira Interior and which has a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). The experimental design and the optimization process were based on the Response Surface Methodology. In order to achieve that, a factorial design was implemented with three factors (almond and honey content, and baking time) and five response variables (water activity, antioxidant activity, mesophilic count, flavour and texture), and three repetitions of the central point. The optimization resulted in a formulation with 50 g 100 g-1 of sweet cherry, 35 g 100 g-1 of almond, 15 g 100 g-1 of honey, baked in the oven at 120 ºC for 13 min. The nutritional analysis showed that this product could be labelled with some nutritional claims, such as “low saturated fat”, “with no added sugar”, “salt free” and “source of fibre”.

The feed cost represents the major cost in milk production. Direct grazing and forage produced on the dairy farm could allow the farmer to a better feed production cost control. Ryegrass have been extensively used for grazing and forage production. This study evaluates the production and nutritional composition of two ryegrass cultivars diploid and tetraploid alone or in a binary mixture (50:50). The results showed that the binary mixture is a good option because of its higher production of DM/ha, higher ME and NFC and lower content of NDF, ADF and ADL.