Using modified atmosphere treatments for prolonging storage and shelf life of sweet pepper fruits

Abstract EN

This work was carried out in Post-Harvest Laboratory, Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Egypt during 2015 and 2016 seasons, to determine the effect of modified atmosphere (MA) treatments on storability and quality of sweet pepper fruits during cold storage and shelf life period.

Storing sweet pepper fruits in different mixtures of O2 and CO2 in active modified atmosphere (AMA) containing 6% O2+4% CO2, 4% O2+ 4% CO2, 2% O2+ 4% CO2 and 3% O2 +3%CO2 as well as storing in perforated LDPE bags at 0.50% and 0.25% decreased fresh weight loss percentage (FWL) of fruits and maintained fruit firmness and total chlorophyll in fruit tissues compared to passive modified atmosphere (PMA) during cold storage and shelf life periods in both seasons.

Storing sweet pepper fruits in AMA containing 4% O2+4% CO2 or 2% O2+4% CO2 decreased FWL of fruits.

Moreover, storing fruits in AMA containing 2% O2+4% CO2 maintained fruit firmness at 28 days of cold storage and shelf life in both seasons.

No decay was observed and general appearance (GA) of fruits was excellent at 28 days of cold storage in both seasons with storing in AMA, perforated low density polyethylene (LDEP) bags and PMA.

Storing green pepper fruits in AMA containing 2% O2+4% CO2 maintained the best quality characters at 28 days at 8±1oC and 90- 95% RH.

Fresh weight loss percentage and fruit decay were gradually increased with the advance of cold storage periods .On the contrary, fruit firmness, general appearance and total chlorophyll in fruit tissues were gradually decreased with the advance of cold storage periods.