Assessment of quality indices of butter lettuce during postharvest storage al low relative humidity using the modified GSI approach

ANSORENA, MARÍA ROBERTA; GOÑI, GABRIELA; AGÜERO, VICTORIA; PONCE, A.; MOREIRA, M.R.; ROURA, S.I.; DI SCALA, K.

Córdoba

Congreso; III Congreso Internacional de Ciencia y Tecnología de los Alimentos; 2009

Agencia Córdoba Ciencia S.E.

During postharvest, leafy vegetables are usually exposed to adverse ambient variables, such as low relative humidity, among others. In order to evaluate their shelf life, a huge number of quality indices (nutritional, physico-chemical, organoleptical, etc.) must be empirically evaluated, implying long working times. To cope with this, mathematical modeling allows the reduction of the experimental work, predicting the quality indices evolution even within changing variables. In this work, the modified GSI method was applied to estimate the quality stability of butter lettuce at low relative humidity during post harvest storage differentiated by zone (internal, middle and external). The results indicated that for external zone the more relevant indices were RWC, WC, AA, MT, for middle zone were RWC, WC, TC, AA and for internal RWC, BW, WC, MT, respectively. RWC was a common index in all lettuce zones. Moreover, a mathematical model between GSI and OVQ was presented. The Weibull distribution was successfully applied to predict maximum lettuce storage time.