FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF MECHANICAL DAMAGE IN CHICORY (Cichorium intybus L.)

During postharvest storage of chicory heads, red spots may develop in the intermediary leaves (van Kruistum, 1997). In this article, a new hypothesis is adopted to explain red discoloration. It is assumed that the growing floral stem induces mechanical stresses in the intermediate leaves, which may cause cell rupture. As a consequence, phenolic substrates and polyphenol oxidases, which are compartimentalized in intact cells, may merge and lead to red colored polyphenolic compounds. For validating this hypothesis, the development of mechanical stresses in the intermediate leaves of chicons during postharvest storage has been calculated using the finite element method (Segerlind, 1984).