BACKGROUND Ripened cheeses, such as pecorino, are susceptible to mites and molds contamination on the crust area that must be removed before the product can be marketed. This study investigates the effectiveness of gaseous ozone treatment in the control of microbiological and mite growth without negatively affecting product quality. RESULTS Cheese samples were treated with gaseous ozone at 200 and 300 ppb for 8 h per day (overnight) for 150 days in storage rooms under controlled conditions (12 °C and 85% relative humidity). The results showed that ozone at 200 ppb limits the growth of mites starting from 25 days of storage and significantly reduced bacteria, molds, and yeasts counts starting from 75 days of storage. Concerning the physicochemical and qualitative parameters evaluated during ripening (weight loss, moisture content, dry weight, ash, fat, protein, total nitrogen, color, non‐destructive firmness), no significant differences were shown between the control samples and ozone treatment at 200 ppb. Sensory analysis (consumer test) also showed no specific defects with the ozone‐treated samples. It was observed that the ozone treatment at 300 ppb had limited microbiological growth and no alteration of sensory aspects but did not have the same positive impact on some aspects of overall quality, compared with ozone treatment at 200 ppb. CONCLUSION The use of gaseous ozone treatments during ripening of pecorino cheese can potentially offer an excellent solution for the control of mite growth, while preserving the quality and sensory characteristics of the product. For this reason, this technique could be very useful for commercial purposes. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.

The dairy field has considerable economic relevance in the agri-food system, but also has the need to develop new ‘green’ supply chain actions to ensure that sustainable products are in line with consumer requirements. In recent years, the dairy farming industry has generally improved in terms of equipment and product performance, but innovation must be linked to traditional product specifications. During cheese ripening, the storage areas and the direct contact of the cheese with the wood must be carefully managed because the proliferation of contaminating microorganisms, parasites, and insects increases significantly and product quality quickly declines, notably from a sensory level. The use of ozone (as gas or as ozonated water) can be effective for sanitizing air, water, and surfaces in contact with food, and its use can also be extended to the treatment of waste and process water. Ozone is easily generated and is eco-sustainable as it tends to disappear in a short time, leaving no residues of ozone. However, its oxidation potential can lead to the peroxidation of cheese polyunsaturated fatty acids. In this review we intend to investigate the use of ozone in the dairy sector, selecting the studies that have been most relevant over the last years.

<p>Ag-IoT systems enable a data pipeline for modern agricultural production. Using Ag-IoT technologies, growers can make better management decisions by leveraging the real-time field data while researchers could utilize these data to answer key scientific questions. Here, we designed a flexible microprocessor-based platform, called TreeTalker, to monitor in real-time plant sap flow rate via thermal approaches. TreeTalker has an onboard spectrometer to collect data in near infrared and visible areas using 12 bands from 450 to 860 nm. Moreover, TreeTalker collects microclimate data (air temperature and air relative humidity) as well as soil moisture and temperature measurement. Sap flow and soil moisture measurements are the main tools to understand the plant water demand for precision irrigation and water-energy efficiency. In this study, 9 TreeTalker units are mounted on Soreli Kiwifruit trees in the Lazio region, Italy. The site is divided into three clusters with different irrigation regimes, 100, 80 and 60 %, respectively. The first objective of this study was to apply new algorithms for sap flow measurement considering the heating and cooling phases of the heat flow curve at the same time and secondly, a compare of phenological and ecohydrological trends of trees under full and deficit irrigation systems. Data captured was used to analyze the correlation between fruit quality, productivity, health, and fertility of trees with ecophysiological parameters under different irrigation systems. The result of continuous monitoring for one growing season in 2022 revealed that sap flow function based on cooling phase data has higher accuracy than heating phase due to independency to the zero-flux condition as well as semi-theoretical flow index. Given sap flow results, plants with the full irrigation system have ∼ 1.3 to 3 times greater sap flow rate than plants with deficit irrigation regimes. Kiwi peak water demand occurred in July coinciding with max VPD confirming maximum sap flow rates between each irrigation regime. A variation between the 80% and 60% irrigation regimes, ∼ 4 to 15 %, is linked to slight differences in sap flow rates and is most prominent in the early part of the growing season. Considering fruit quality data, kiwifruit trees with full irrigation showed lower acidity, and higher Vitamin C concentration while sugar concentrations were noticeably lower. Our results suggest that the 80% irrigation schedule achieves the optimum water energy efficiency as well as reaching optimum fruit quality conditions. This finding requires validation via continued monitoring over successive seasons and irrigation regimes. The revolution in the Internet of trees offers a promising new big data solution for assessing optimal conditions for fruit tree agricultural production considering future and potential water scarcity scenarios.</p>