Efficacy of mild thermal and pulsed light treatments, individually applied or in combination, for maintaining postharvest quality of strawberry cv. Albion

CONTIGIANI, EUNICE V.; JARAMILLO?SÁNCHEZ, GABRIELA M.; CASTRO, MARÍA A.; GÓMEZ, PAULA L.; ALZAMORA, STELLA M.

JOURNAL OF FOOD PROCESSING AND PRESERVATION

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2020

0145-8892

The effect of mild thermal (TT) and pulsed light (PL) treatments, individually appliedor in combination, on fungal spoilage, mechanical properties, weight loss, and microstructure of strawberries (cv. Albion) stored at 5 °C was evaluated. TT (2.5 and 5.0 min in water at 46 ± 0.4 °C) was more effective than PL (fluence: 11.9 J/cm2) to reduce fungal decay. TT for 5 min delayed the onset of infection for 6 days and maintained the lowest percentage of infected fruit along storage, showing the best performance among the strategies evaluated. Combined treatments did not achieve greater fungal inhibition than individual TT. Nonsignificant differences in weight loss among control and treated fruit were observed up to 8 days of storage.TT for 5 min and its combination with PL significantly enhanced firmness, stiffness, and resistance to deformation as compared to untreated fruit, in concordance with the reinforcement of cell walls.