Florida Citrus Crop Facing A Real Threat

I know that the California drought has been in the news lately and that is a real threat to the growth of our citrus crop as time goes on.  But Florida is also facing a threat from a new disease.

The culprit is citrus greening, a disease that has devastated Florida's oranges and grapefruits, and has now begun to spread.

Back in the 1950s and '60s, the Florida Citrus Tower was one of the Orlando area's most important tourist attractions. From it you could see thousands and thousands acres of citrus trees.

The Florida citrus industry problems began with a series of freezes in the 1980s that devastated citrus in Central Florida. In the '83 freeze, 300,000 acres of mature, fruit-bearing orange and grapefruit trees died in a single night. Growers eventually recovered by moving and replanting groves further south.

Citrus greening poses a similar crisis for growers, but one for which so far, there is no solution.

The Citrus Research and Development Foundation, an industry group that is focused almost entirely on one problem: defeating citrus greening.

Scientists and growers now say virtually 100 percent of Florida's groves are infected with citrus greening.

Maury Boyd is a grower who heads the McKinnon Corporation, which has 1,500 acres of citrus groves. On one tree, near his office in Winter Garden, the orange is hard and shriveled. Lots more fruit has already dropped and is on the ground.

The bacterium that causes greening is hard to treat because it flourishes deep inside the tree, in its vascular system. Boyd says it disrupts the flow of the nutrients trees need to survive.

It's a short-term strategy aimed at keeping diseased trees productive as long as possible.

The industry, the state of Florida and USDA are spending millions of dollars each year funding research. And scientists have some promising leads.

At the University of Florida's Citrus Research and Education Center, Fred Gmitter is a horticultural researcher who's scoured groves throughout Florida looking for "survivor trees." He's now testing the root systems of 16 trees that seem to be resistant to citrus greening.

Hopefully California can learn from Florida’s problems and protect our trees.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We have the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500
http://sunburstoranges.com

Sunburst Oranges – We Have Added Chocolates

As you know ( or at least we hope you do ) we have added Staffords Famous Chocolates to our Sunburst Oranges website. We have started with five different ( should we say they are wonderfully delicious ) selections to choose from.

Taste of the Valley
Our Taste of the Valley box includes the signature items of the Santa Ynez Valley. The box contains Dark Chocolate Red Wine Truffles, Dark Chocolate Lavender Truffles, our very own Ooey Gooey Bites, and our homemade Sea Salt Caramels. 1/2 pound box of Mixed Milk, Dark and White Chocolates

English Toffee
Our English Toffee is handmade using only the best all natural ingredients. This rich crunchy buttery toffee is hand dipped and then rolled in a bed of chopped golden California almonds. 1/2 pound bag Mixed Milk, Dark and White Chocolate

Nuts and Chews
Choose from a variety of our organic crunchy nut clusters including Spanish peanuts, California walnuts and fresh roasted almonds. Our creamy caramels are hand crafted from scratch using only the freshest ingredients. 1/2 pound box of Mixed Milk, Dark and White Chocolate

Chocolate Hedgehogs
These extremely popular and cute animals make for a great gift for kids and a fun surprise for adults. 1 pound Mixed Milk, Dark and White Chocolate

Assorted Truffles
These decadent truffles have a sweet creamy ganache center infused with either Santa Ynez Valley red wine, or feature other elegant flavors ranging from Mocha Espresso to French Lavender. 
1/2 pound box of Mixed Milk, Dark and White Truffles

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh and sweet gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Six Great Reasons To Eat An Orange A Day!

We all know the saying "an apple a day," but equally an orange should be the recommendation. Oranges are low in calories, full of nutrients, promote healthy skin and can help to lower our risk for many diseases and conditions as part of an overall healthy and varied diet.

1. Boosts Your Immunity

A single orange has more than 100% of your daily requirement of Vitamin C. This vital nutrient helps improve your immunity, keeping you free from diseases and infections. 

2. Great For Your Eyes

Along with our skin, our eyes too suffers from damage as we grow older. Oranges are rich in nutrients like Vitamin A, Vitamin C and potassium which are great for your eyes. So, if you want your vision to be just as good as it is now, eat an orange every day! 

3. Help Prevent Heart Disease

One of the reasons why people get heart disease is because their arteries are blocked due to unhealthy lifestyles and consumption of junk food. Oranges have flavonoids like hesperidin which reduces cholesterol and prevents your arteries from getting blocked. This, in turn protects you from heart attack and various other cardiovascular diseases. 

4. Reduce Cancer Risk

Having cancer can be a tough and harrowing experience for both the patient and the caregiver. Research has shown that a compound called D – limonene present in oranges can prevent various types of cancer like lung cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, etc. Additionally, the antioxidants and Vitamin C help promote the body’s immunity which helps in fighting cancer cells. 

5. Helps Prevent Kidney Diseases

The regular intake of orange juice prevents kidney diseases. It also reduces the risk of forming calcium oxalate stones in the kidney. But take the juice in moderate amounts. 

6. Promotes Healthy Brain Development

Folic acid present in oranges promote brain development and keep the vital organ in mint condition. In fact, these nutrients also make orange a healthy fruit for pregnant woman as it prevents the baby from having neurological disorders later.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We have the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500
http://sunburstoranges.com

Should Oranges Be Packed Pyramid Style?

Before you think we have lost our minds, let me explain this subject in a bit more depth.  There are people who dedicate their professional lives to the study of the more efficient way to package and ship the goods we buy.

A very recent example of this is how those ubiquitous half-liter plastic water bottles are packed and shipped.  First they found that they could make the plastic bottles with thinner walls and remove the cardboard bottom to save weight.  Then they found they could save storage space by re-arranging their placement within the twenty-four bottle wrapper.

Now we all have noticed that the arrangement has changed from the side-by-side placement to an offset style that fills the empty spaces left by the old style arrangement.

How does the water bottle story apply to oranges?

Being a near perfect sphere oranges and other fruit present unique challenges when it comes to hyper-efficient packaging.  Your local grocery store may have shown the way, even before the packing gurus tackled this problem. That style of arrangement is correctly called a face-centered cubic lattice.

If you wonder how long this particular question has been discussed or thought about there is evidence that Johannes Kepler (a 17th century German astronomer and mathematician) wrote about it. Kepler conjectured in 1611 that the densest configuration of spheres is the one you observe with oranges at a fruit market.

After careful study and scientific testing the packing gurus found that a box (cubical or otherwise) wasn’t the most efficient shape for packing spherical objects, be it basket balls or delicious Sunburst Navel Oranges.

To put this new packaging idea into operational reality we need to find boxes in the shape of a pyramid.  I guess the first question is; are pyramid packages going to be called boxes? 

And maybe have a few sleepless nights wondering how they will be handled by the folks that need to load, unload and deliver these same new packages.  On second thought we think that a box may just be the way to go, or is that stay?

As long as we are thinking outside of the box I guess we can steal an idea from the Japanese growers and modify the orange itself. Square (make that cubical) grown oranges would also solve the packaging problem.

Should you have the need to look at this information from an in-depth mathematical point of view you could take a moment to read this article; http://blog.kleinproject.org/?p=742

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Sunburst Oranges Presents Orange-Honey Baked Salmon

Simplicity is the key to this baked salmon which is quick and easy to make, tastes absolutely wonderful and would be a great choice for a dinner party. Enjoy!

Ingredients

(4 servings)

4 salmon fillets (about 6 oz each one)
Salt and black pepper
4 tablespoons honey
½ cup fresh orange juice
4 slices fresh Sunburst orange
3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
Orange zest (1 medium Sunburst orange)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

In a large baking dish place the salmon fillets. Season each fillet with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl mix the orange juice, orange zest and honey. Divide the mixture on top of the salmon fillets. Then top each fillet with an orange slice.

Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the salmon is cooked through.

Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve.

Nutritional Facts
4 ounces cooked salmon equals 238 calories, 13 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 67 mg cholesterol, 261 mg sodium, 5 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 23 g protein

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Fungicide Found In Florida Orange Juice, New News or Rehash

The following story first showed up in early 2012.  It has made a comeback among some blogs this year.  It seems it is the same story being reprinted rather than “new” news.  

The Food and Drug Administration says it has confirmed low levels of an illegal fungicide in orange juice samples taken from Florida manufacturers.

The FDA says the fungicide is far below dangerous levels, the juice is safe to drink and the orange juice won't be recalled from stores or destroyed. The juice tested was mixed with product from Brazil, where the fungicide carbendazim is used.

The government is testing for the chemical in domestic orange juice and in imports because carbendazim is not approved for use on oranges in the United States. It is used in other countries, including Brazil, to combat mold on orange trees.

The test results are the first domestic samples released by the FDA. The government started testing for the chemical after Atlanta-based Coca-Cola, which owns juice brands Minute Maid and Simply Orange, reported finding the chemical in its own juice and in competing juices late last year. Most orange juice products made by Coke and other companies contain a blend of juice from different sources, including Brazil, which is the world's largest orange producer.

The FDA said that nine of fourteen samples taken from large holding tanks of juice in Florida tested positive at up to 36 parts per billion. 

The Environmental Protection Agency has said studies show no risks of consuming the chemical at up to 80 parts per billion and true levels of danger are probably thousands of times higher.

The question raised relates to batches that would have contained a much higher percentage of the chemical from the ratio of oranges that were sourced from Brazil to non-contaminated Florida oranges.

This story about Florida orange juice contamination may not be new news but it is a cautionary tale about knowing the real source of your food or drink.

We want you to know that Sunburst Oranges, of course, doesn’t use carbendazim on our orange trees. So it can’t find its way into your orange juice that is made from our oranges.

Both health and taste wise there are few items that make a better start to your day than a twelve ounce glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. We think that from Sunburst Oranges, orange juice tastes even better.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Sunburst Orange Gift Packs

Medium Super Citrus Saver
18 California Sweet Navel Oranges delivered to your door at no additional shipping costs. $21.95

Large Super Citrus Saver
24 California Sweet Navel Oranges delivered to your door at no additional shipping costs. $29.95

Can ship anywhere in the US including Military Bases...........Send a little Sunshine to Support Our Troops.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We have the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.



Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Sunburst Oranges Knows DNA, Orange DNA That Is

We have been accused of Eating, And Sleeping, And Breathing Oranges around here. We must plead guilty to that.  Especially the “eating” part. From a Farmer’s point of view, the more you know about your crop the better off you are when it comes to raising the very best product you can.

So when we found this information we were intrigued by the depth and rigor of this scholarly research, that the work that went into it.

We don’t have the space here to even begin to do the full report justice. What follows is a thumbnail sketch of the report.

Citrus species are among the most important fruit crops in the world. They are widely grown in the tropical, subtropical, and borderline subtropical/temperate areas of the world. The genus Citrus was established by Carl Linneaus in 1753. Since the establishment of the genus, Citrus has attracted much research interest for more than 250 years.

The most widely accepted taxonomic systems today are those of Swingle (1943) and Tanaka (1977) who recognized 16 and 162 species, respectively. Scora (1975) and Barrett and Rhodes (1976) suggested that there were only three true species within the subgenus Eucitrus of Swingle’s system (i.e., C. medica, C. reticulata, and C. grandis). The other genotypes were derived from hybridization between these true species. Citrus has a long history of cultivation—more than 4000 years (Scora, 1988; Webber et al., 1967). However, the huge controversy over the phylogeny of key wild species, and the genetic relationship between the cultivated species and their putative wild progenitors have remained unresolved, mainly due to the sexual compatibility between Citrus and related genera, the high frequency of bud mutations, the long history of cultivation, and wide dispersion.

Previous studies on the genetic origin of cultivated citrus were mainly based on morphological, biochemical, and isozyme data (Barrett and Rhodes, 1976; Fang, 1993; Scora, 1988; Torres et al., 1978). Recently, DNA markers such as restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), and sequence-characterized amplified regions (SCARs) were widely used to investigate the phylogenetic relationship of Citrus and its close relatives to infer into the genetic origins of the cultivated types (Federici et al., 1998; Nicolosi et al., 2000). More recently, DNA sequence data gave some clues about the progenitors of cultivated citrus (Bayer et al., 2009). Although these studies provided useful information for the origin of citrus and its taxonomy, the results have not been always in agreement. A clearer understanding of the citrus genetic background is necessary for better a characterization and utilization of citrus germplasm.

A total of 30 accessions was analyzed in the present study, including 24 belonging to the subgenus Citrus, three from the subgenus Papeda, and three from the genus Poncirus that were used as the outgroups.

If you wish to read the full article it is available in PDF form at; http://www.researchgate.net/journal/0003-1062_Journal_of_the_American_Society_for_Horticultural_Science_American_Society_for_Horticultural_Science

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We have the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Sunburst Oranges Presents The Pentagon Shaped Orange Story

When we first saw these images we thought back on the recent Internet stories that were in the line of the many fake and hoax reports. Headlines that scream “Baby Dinosaur Hatches From Million Year Old Egg.” and “Hoverboards Are Real.”

So before we repeated the story we looked into just how the world came to have a “Pentagon Shaped Orange.”  If we just look at the shape and claim of a pentagon shape (from pente and gonia, which is Greek for five and angle) the photo does show what seemed to fit the claim. As we know that the Adobe Photoshop program can do wonders in photo alteration we were still left with, but are they real?

If they were real, how do you grow an orange in any shape but a nice round sphere?

Some online research gave us the answer.  The clever folks that brought us the miniature transistor radio, Nikon cameras and Hondas are at it again.

Here is the Google Translate results direct from the story in the original Japanese.

Thriving cultivation of mandarin orange, the Iyokan that the pentagonal when viewed from above , Ehime Prefecture Yawatahama young farmers of the city has made. Next month, I sell the first time about 300 at a local festival.

The enclosure in a wooden frame of 1.5 cm thick real young, were harvested after four months. Sugar content is higher than normal or because of pressure. Effort of five years tried also heart-shaped or star is the fruit.

To give it to a local high school in the 16th. As "a lucky charm of examination because it has two months" Kubota length (Jo) 's representative (25). Should to you that you worked hard in the triangular eyes "feeling good pass" to visit.

Resource: Asahi News http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASG1H5TBRG1HPFIB00X.html

It seems that while the orange is growing it is placed inside a shaped enclosure that forces the orange to grow in the shape of the box which is in the pentagon form.

The iyokan citrus fruits or ‘Gokaku no Iyokan’ were handed out as a good luck charm for students in the upcoming entrance exam season in Yawatahama, Ehime.  ’Gokaku no Iyokan’ also means ‘sweet smell of success in exams.’

I’m sure something will come along and change our minds, but for now we can say “Now I Have Seen It All!”

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Sunburst Oranges Presents Grilled Salmon With Oranges

Are you looking for a very healthy and tasty meal for this week? Now is a great time to combine the wonderful taste of oranges with an equally healthy meat / protein source.

This one pan dinner, with a ten minute cook time, is an easy, quick and healthy meal with a thirty minute total time.

Ingredients

2 Sunburst navel oranges
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
¼ cup olive oil
1 pound skinless salmon fillet
Salt and pepper
¼ cup pitted black olives, thin sliced

Preparations

Slice salmon into four, four ounce fillets. Grate two tablespoons of orange zest, then slice oranges into eight wedges per orange. Slice or chop the bell peppers into small sections. You can adjust the flavor profile by altering the ratio of orange to bell pepper.  We favor more orange and less bell pepper.

Toss together the orange zest, wedges, bell peppers, and olive oil. Arrange half of the mixture on a shallow baking pan in an even layer. Top with the salmon fillets. Place the remaining orange and bell pepper mixture on top of the salmon fillets. Then season vegetables and salmon, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Cooking

Heat broiler, with rack eight inches from flame or electric element. Broil until vegetables are browned in spots and salmon is opaque throughout, eight to ten minutes. Sprinkle with the thin sliced well drained olives just before serving.

Healthy serving for four.

Less than 300 calories per serving.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Sunburst Oranges Wishes You Happy St. Patrick’s Day

It may seem strange that a company all about the color orange is taking a moment to bring up the famous green of St. Paddy’s Day. Here is the real background on Saint Patrick.

When he was about 16, he was captured from his home in Great Britain, and taken as a slave to Ireland, where he lived for six years before escaping and returning to his family. After becoming a cleric, he returned to northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as an ordained bishop. That’s right he wasn’t even Irish.

Saint Patrick's Day is observed on the 17th March (thought to be the date of his death). It is celebrated inside and outside Ireland as a religious and cultural holiday. In the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation; it is now, also a celebration of Ireland itself.

Two Latin letters survive which are generally accepted to have been written by St. Patrick. These are the Declaration (Latin: Confessio) and the Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus (Latin: Epistola), from which come the only generally accepted details of his life. The Declaration is the more important of the two. In it, Patrick gives a short account of his life and his mission. Most available details of his life are from subsequent hagiographies and annals, and these are now not accepted without detailed criticism.

The Irish annals for the fifth century are not contemporary documents, but were compiled in the mid-6th century at the earliest. The annals date Patrick's arrival in Ireland to 432, but this date was probably artificially chosen to minimise the contribution of Palladius, who was known to have been sent to Ireland in 431, and maximise that of Patrick. A variety of dates are given for his death. In 457 "the elder Patrick" (Irish Latin: Patraic Sen) is said to have died: this may refer to the death of Palladius, who is said in the Book of Armagh to have also been called Patrick. In 461/2 the annals say that "Here some record the repose of Patrick", in 492/3 they record the death of "Patrick, the arch-apostle (or archbishop and apostle) of the Scoti", on 17 March, at the age of 120.

The Patrick portrayed by writers Tírechán and Muirchu is a martial figure, who contests with druids, overthrows pagan idols, and curses kings and kingdoms. On occasion, their accounts contradict Patrick's own writings: Tírechán states that Patrick accepted gifts from female converts although Patrick himself flatly denies this. However, the emphasis Tírechán and Muirchu placed on female converts, and in particular royal and noble women who became nuns, is thought to be a genuine insight into Patrick's work of conversion. Patrick also worked with the unfree and the poor, encouraging them to vows of monastic chastity. Tírechán's account suggests that many early Patrician churches were combined with nunneries founded by Patrick's noble female converts.

The absence of snakes in Ireland gave rise to the legend that they had all been banished by Saint Patrick chasing them into the sea after they attacked him during a forty day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:

Sunburst Packing Co.

180 South “E” Street

Porterville, CA  93257

559-783-0500

Simply Sunburst Gift Pack

12 California Sweet Navel Oranges packed in a gift box for $10.95 plus shipping charges (varies by destination)

Sunburst has over 70 years of experience in the Citrus Industry. As a grower, packer and servicer, We strive for perfection and satisfaction on every shipment from our home to yours. Our Citrus is grown in the richest soils of California in the San Joaquin Valley.

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We have the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

Studies Show Citrus Juices Have Excellent Health Benefits

Natural antioxidants from fruits juices offer an alternative source of dietary ingredients to promote healthy life. For example, α-amylase, α-glucosidase inhibitors are considered one of the effective measures for regulating type II diabetes by controlling glucose uptake, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are used to treat the Alzheimer's disease and tyrosinase inhibitors are clinically useful for the treatment of Parkinson disease. In this research health relevant functionality of juice from indigenous fruit of limes and Pummelo is explored. They have shown a variety of pharmaceutical effects such as anti-tumor, antimicrobial, anti-inflammation and antioxidant activities.

Citrus fruits belong to the family of Rutaceae which is one of the most important fruits crops of the world and it is consumed mostly as fresh produce or juice because of its nutritional value and pleasant flavor. Citrus is an excellent source of many nutrients that are able to supply a healthy diet. Phenolic acids and flavanones are the two main groups of phenolic compounds in citrus fruit juices. Generally all citrus juices are a rich source of antioxidant compounds, specifically phenol, flavonoids and ascorbic acid. The phenolic compounds have a wide range of biological activities such as antioxidant activity, protection against coronary heart diseases, anti-inflammatory, anticancer and antimicrobial activities.

Due to their important health-promoting properties, there is a growing interest to incorporate these compounds into food products, either to create functional foods or else to simply replace commonly used synthetic food additives such as butylated hydroxytoluene and butylated hydroxyanisole in order to prevent the side effects. There can be no doubt that nutritional value and pharmacological properties of different parts of indigenous fruits.

So, the regular consumption of phenolics rich fruits and vegetables along with the foods will inhibit the carcinogenesis and mutagenesis in humans. Among the juices three juices from citrus fruits (oranges included) contained significant total phenolics that increase antioxidant intake in human diet.

Conclusions
In this present study, juice samples from indigenous fruits of demonstrated that they are not only possesses antioxidant and radical scavenging activity but also exhibited excellent inhibitory potential against α-amylase, α-glucosidase, acetylcholinesterase, tyrosinase and β-glucuronidase in vitro. Consequently, citrus juices those are rich in sources of phenolics and flavonoids, are suitable and promising for the development of safe food products and natural additives. Hence, it may be concluded that the antioxidant and inhibitory potential against α-amylase, α-glucosidase, acetylcholinesterase, tyrosinase and β-glucuronidase action of citrus fruit juices could be used for future therapeutic medicine from the presence of potential neutraceuticals. Further studies will be conducted to identify bioactive constituents, molecular mechanisms involved in antioxidant activity, determination of their efficacy by in vivo studies and demonstration of their safety and effectiveness in clinical trials. Reference: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213453014000044

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500

What Is That Fuzzy Blue Tennis Ball In My Refrigerator?

It seems like just yesterday I bought some fresh lemons at my local grocery store and used several of them. When I went to get out the last one all I could see was what looked like a fuzzy blue-green tennis ball. What happened to my lemon?

Before you place the blame on just the end user or even the grocery store it is only fair to tell a more complete story.  How well your citrus stores and how long it is good is affected by many factors that can go all the way back to the grower and how the fruit is handled on its way to your home.

That photo shows at least two different types on mold that go into converting the lemon to what looks like a fuzzy blue-green tennis ball. The term blue mold may also be applied to Penicillium roqueforti, a mold used in producing the taste and characteristic blue-green inclusions in Roquefort and other blue cheeses.

Green mold is an umbrella term that refers to a number of species of fungus with spores that take on a green tint. The more common species usually belong to three genuses of fungi: Cladosporium, Aspergillus and Penicillium.

Did you know that what happens to your fruit while it is being harvested and transported can adversely affect how long it will stay fresh and look good after you buy it?  Here is a very brief statement from a report on industry handling for producers.

Impact of Handling Injuries on Postharvest Fruit Quality. Care should be taken in the field during harvest to minimize damage to fruit since the consequences of mechanical injury are: increased likelihood decay, enhanced water loss and peel breakdown in subsequent handling.

Some fruit packers use a process called “Ethylene Degreening” where a gas is used to enhance the look of the fruit. The process of exposing “green” citrus fruit with low levels of ethylene to enhance coloration. The decay rate of the fruit was increased significantly by degreening with ethylene.

While this method of degreening may seem like a un-natural process it should be noted that the fruit naturally produces the ethylene that causes it to go from green to normal color as it grows on the tree.

Ethylene does not actually ripen the citrus fruit. As such, the acid, sugars and flavors of the juice and pulp are unaffected and not changed by the exposure to ethylene.

There are studies (ongoing) that seem to indicate that factors such as the time of day, the temperature and humidity when the fruit is picked can affect the rate at which decay will occur as the fruit goes on its journey to the consumer.

Sunburst Oranges Hand-Picked, Hand-Made, Goodness Year-Round!

Are you looking for the perfect gift for business associates, family or friends? A quick visit to http://sunburstoranges.com can solve all of your fresh gift giving adventures. We sell only the finest selections and the freshest citrus you can buy.

Presented By:
Sunburst Packing Co.
180 South “E” Street
Porterville, CA  93257
559-783-0500