Packing lines for cactus pears

This research aims to provide an initial contribution towards the study of packing lines for cactus pears destined for fresh consumption. To this end, in order to identify the main phases of the work and the human and energy resources used, visits were made to some lines in Sicily, an area where over 90% of the national surface area dedicated to this crop is concentrated. Furthermore, by means of the IS100 instrumented sphere, the average level of stress inflicted on the fruit both by the single operations as well as the entire working process was measured. In the continuation of the research an attempt will be made to correlate this stress with the probability of damage to the processed fruit.