Viscoelastic-plastic behavior of single tomato mesocarp cells in high speed compression-holding tests

Fresh fruit is very susceptible to damage during industrial handling (e.g. mechanical harvesting, packaging and transport). Mechanical damage to fruit, manifested at the macro scale, is caused ultimately by failure of cells at the micro scale. Viscoelastic-plastic characterization of single cells isolated from tissue is vital to macro-scale modeling, simulation and prediction of mechanical damage to fruits. The method might be extended to single cells of other fruits.