CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

UV-C treatments have been shown to reduce fruit spoilage and delay ripening. Research assessing the role of UV-C radiation on quality has mostly focused on identifying fruit responses after single step pre-storage treatments, but no studies have addressed the effect that for a given total dose, multi-step UV-C radiation may have on ripening physiology. In this work we evaluated the influence of UV-C fractionation on ripening and quality maintenance of stored strawberry fruit. Strawberries cv. Camarosa were harvested and subjected to the following treatments: Control without irradiation; single-step UV: single UV-C 4 kJ m-2 application before storage; two-step UV: two 2 kJ m-2 applications after 0 and 4 d of storage and multi-step UV: five 0.8 kJ m-2 after 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 d of storage. Samples were stored at 4 °C for 0, 10 and 13 days and during this period we followed the changes in fruit physical, chemical and sensory properties. UV-C treated strawberries maintained after 13 days of storage lower respiration than the control, suggesting that fruit deterioration was reduced. UV-C exposure markedly decreased decay, weight loss and softening; with the effect being greater in fruit subjected to two-step and multi-step treatments. Fluorescence stereomicroscopic observations showed that UV-C irradiation elicited the accumulation of hydroxycinnamic acid-derivatives on the epidermal hairs. The treatments did not affect acidity, sugars and ascorbic acid content, regardless of the irradiation schedule. Fruit subjected to two-step UV-C treatments showed highest consumer sensory scores in color, freshness and acceptability. Overall, results show that fractionated UV-C exposure improves quality retention of refrigerated strawberry as compared to both untreated control fruit and traditional single-step applications

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