Life is nothing if not varied at Writtle College, and those students in the institution’s post-harvest unit are constantly exploring a vast range of different disciplines, from packaging strength and carbon footprints to shelf-life issues.
The unit largely focuses on coldstorage, packaging and international transport issues, and its work is respected and well utilised by its numerous commercial partners, who commission independent research projects to ensure they are getting the best out of their post-harvest processes.
As well as managing a Knowledge Transfer Partnership, the college is working with a leading supermarket on various post-harvest matters and has recently completed a Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) project with a supermarket and a packaging company.
Students and staff across Writtle College, which is a partner institution of the University of Essex, are heavily involved in developing and maintaining partnerships with other institutions from across the world. This educational network allows students and staff to spend time abroad and experience a different academic culture, while gaining an international perspective on their studies and research.
The post-harvest unit is part of the School of Horticulture. The school enjoys excellent relations with the research sectors of several major international organisations and universities such as Egerton University in Kenya, the University of Almería, the University of California Davis and the Parks department in Bermuda. The school also has close links with colleges around the UK, including Cranfield University and the universities of Sheffield and Nottingham. Consultancy work is carried out in conjunction with companies in Eastern and Southern Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia.
The college offers taught MSc awards on a full- and part-time basis, including International Horticulture, Horticulture (Crop Production), Post-harvest Technology and Landscape Management. Research degrees can also be pursued, leading to an MSc, MPhil or PhD.
The post-harvest unit has a well-equipped laboratory and a long record of undertaking applied research on an international basis in many aspects of crop handling, transport and storage. The unit also provides specialist training courses for companies in this sector.
Dr Chris Bishop, reader in post-harvest technology, tells FPJ: “Writtle College has housed a post-harvest unit for the last eight years and we have been developing the department since then. Nobody else in the country offers a taught MSc in post-harvest.”
The post-harvest facility houses four coldstore rooms to simulate the shelf life and storage conditions of various products, plus two further rooms for commercially confidential projects. “We try to mix the teaching here between lectures and practical,” says Bishop. “Of course, more space and facilities would be great, but our area has grown well over the last few years.”
A proportion of the students have a commercial partner funding their projects, explains Bishop. “For example, last year we had a student studying waxy coatings on a fruit - the firm funded them by providing us with the fruit, the coatings and the student’s travel expenses,” he says.
Last year, another Writtle student conducted work on biodegradable banana bags, comparing them with standard banana bags. “We looked at how the bags affected the greening of the fruit, etc, which was useful information for the packaging company. Quite a lot of the companies do use the research afterwards and the trials do pay off,” says Bishop.
There is never a shortage of firms looking to commission projects from Writtle’s post-harvest department. “Next year we have probably got more potential student projects than we will have students,” says Bishop. “We really try to vary the projects we undertake. Last year, one of the students did a lot of work on butternut squash. We typically have one project working directly with a grower at any one time. We like to do things with British growers - we have done work on potatoes and cauliflowers, for example. Then the MSc students can travel out to meet them.”
However, the department also has strong international links, which are crucial not only to attracting new students into the college, but also to extending the scope of its work. In the last two years, the MSc courses have had students from 24 different countries.
Working with US government agency USAID, in the past Writtle’s post-harvest department has undertaken various projects in Ethiopia and Uganda. “I have been able to go out along with certain postgrad students to Uganda for six weeks and work alongside a Ugandan postgraduate student,” says Bishop. The post-harvest unit also has particularly strong links with Kenya.
The community feel within the post-harvest department is one of the reasons why the unit attracts such a high proportion of international students. Postgraduate students from Writtle are highly regarded throughout the international industry and often obtain employment on major projects affecting landscape management, crop production, crop storage and the supply of food and fuel crops across the globe.
Rates of employment among students of Writtle’s post-harvest department are “very good”, according to Bishop. “Most of them get jobs in the sector and some have a choice of jobs,” he says.
Along with the projects undertaken by students, the unit’s teaching staff are also commissioned to conduct a wide range of studies. Dr Clive Beale is largely responsible for such confidential commercial projects, which can include visual assessments, quality control assessments, brix levels, titration and taste panels on a range of produce. A range of different clients commission the work, including supermarkets, marketing desks and suppliers and occasionally growers.
“The research seems to be very well received by our clients. We do have regular meetings with them and get feedback,” says Beale. “It is a seven-day-a-week operation, as continuity is important.
“There are often good synergies between the teaching work we do and some of the commercial work. Quite often, things tie in with the curriculum. The students may also participate in trials, such as in tasting panels, and that gives them a greater understanding of the industry.”
PACKAGING REDUCTION IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Claire Bushell, pictured, with an MSc in horticulture already under her belt and a background working in the waste and recycling industries, is investigating product-packaging interactions.
Her work involves compressing packaging, mainly containing strawberries, to see how much it deforms under varying weights, in a bid to discover if fruit and vegetable suppliers can reduce the amount of packaging they use.
“Work like mine has the potential to allow for packaging reduction,” says Bushell, who has been working on the project since March and will finish in September. After that, she hopes to join Writtle’s post-harvest unit as a researcher.
“There is always pressure for changes on packaging from the public, the government and retailers,” she says. “Reducing pack weights can have commercial implications and could mean less waste is sent to landfill.”
Strawberries are the focus of the project because they are a delicate product and for a large part of the year are supplied by UK growers, says Bushell. “I am also looking at the utilisation of the volume inside the pack, and the use of heat-sealing equipment,” she adds. “I have done work on the optimum temperatures for heat sealing and worked on Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with packaging firms and material manufacturers.”
BINGLEY ON THE CARBON TRAIL IN KENYA
Beth Bingley, pictured, is a graduate teaching assistant who is studying for a PhD entitled Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Export Horticultural Produce from Kenya.
“I have done a couple of life cycle analysis studies and have worked on an African Knowledge Transfer Partnership (AKTP) with Jomo Kenyatta University and a Kenyan company,” she tells FPJ. “There are increasing demands for developing countries to present the carbon footprint of their products, but that is a huge cost for a small company.
“So my work is gradually building capacity to help them do this. A lot of overseas universities don’t have a commercial outlook, so the African KTP has been set up to help the industrial and academic worlds to work closer together. At the moment in Africa, there is an element of research for research’s sake rather than directed research for problem solving.”
Bingley is examining a wide range of possible solutions, involving airfreight carriers as well. “There is a strong possibility of offsetting emissions with the tourist industry, which because of aviation is inextricably linked to horticultural exports. We are doing some small studies on sample tourist destinations,” she says.
“What Kenya needs now is a unique selling point. There is a market out there for high-end eco-tourism and the ballpark cost of linking that to the price of a horticultural product could be 2p on top of a pack at the most.
“We are really trying to get the universities in Kenya more involved with the horticultural commercial companies,” she adds.
FLOWER RESEARCH IN AFRICA
Student Seo Tshwenyane, pictured, is studying a project on African flowers in conjunction with a commercial partner.
Her work involves studying storage and shelf-life temperatures, including looking at modified atmosphere storage. “I study the flowers at two different stages, analysing how they change during the day and night,” she says. “I am concentrating on various different varieties and am analysing the sugar levels in the plants.”
Tshwenyane has undertaken the study as part of a three-year PhD thesis, which has involved her visiting flower farms in Kenya and South Africa. Her visits, funded by the University of Botswana and a commercial company, were crucial in gaining an understanding of how flowers are grown commercially.
“Although the post-harvest unit here is small, we have a good community feel, and it also offers the opportunity to work with commercial companies,” she says.
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