623 Vegetables Used in Canned Tuna Products E.R.V. Bayogan and A.T. Lacap University of the Philippines Mindanao Mintal, Tugbok District, Davao City 8000 Philippines Keywords: potatoes, carrots, sweet pepper, handling chain, cannery losses Abstract The most common vegetables used in canned tuna products were surveyed. For the domestic market, General Tuna Corporation, one of six tuna processing companies located in General Santos City in Southern Philippines, was the dominant producer of canned tuna with vegetables. Sixteen of 22 canned tuna variants found in the market had vegetables as ingredients. The products with the most vegetables were afritada, caldereta, mechado and paella. Potatoes, carrots and sweet pepper were the most common vegetables found in seven products. Other vegetables were taro leaves, eggplant, yardlong beans, ginger, onion, and chili. These vegetables were mostly sourced from nearby provinces and occasionally from Northern Philippines when the local supply was low for carrots and potatoes. The accredited cannery suppliers, the traders/middlemen and the farmers were the other major players in the chain. Farmers perceived the need for improving the logistics in the farm particularly containing pest and other production problems to improve productivity and to reduce wastage. At the cannery, reject vegetables were either diseased or non- compliant to the quality requirements. Losses at cannery receipt ranged from 0.31 to 22.37% which can be reduced through simple postharvest handling technologies and adequate dissemination of appropriate technical and market information. INTRODUCTION Tuna are among the most important fish commodity in the world. Canned tuna in particular is one of the most widespread and recognizable fish products (GRP, 2004). The three main tuna species that are canned are skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellowfin (Thunnus albacores) and albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) (GRP, 2008). Production of canned tuna has consequently increased to meet the demand by the expanding world tuna market (Aprieto, 1995) and generally by health conscious consumers (Yamashita, 2008). In the Philippines, there has been an increase in the number of variants in canned tuna products that have vegetables as ingredients. This development in processed food products is presented in a way that the medium (including sauces and mixed vegetables, etc.) show the major difference between product types (Jaffry and Brown, 2008). The production of a number of variants adds to the kinds of products consumers can choose from. In particular, the availability of various tuna products serves as in innovative intervention to promote healthy eating (Hawkes, 2009). Activities involved in the supply chain of these vegetables from the farm to its use in the cannery are important and represents a major challenge for managers (Mabert and Venkataramanan, 1998). Vegetables are perishable and postharvest losses can be tremendous and can affect availability for processing. Losses occur in the various steps of the handling chain. The reduction of losses and fresh quality maintenance after harvest is influenced various factors. This study aimed to market; and to identify the three most common vegetables, its sources, handling chain, quality requirements and types of losses at cannery receipt. MATERIALS AND METHODS Vegetables commonly added as ingredients in canned tuna products were determined by surveying five major supermarkets in Davao City, Philippines. The kinds of canned tuna products, their ingredients, vegetable type, product weight and brand were noted. The vegetables were further validated from responses of canned tuna processors. In Proc. II nd Southeast Asia Symp. on Quality Management in Postharvest Systems Eds.: A.L. Acedo Jr. and S. Kanlayanarat Acta Hort. 1088, ISHS 2015