Effects of delays to cooling and wrapping on strawberry quality (cv. Sweet Char...

• Author(s): Nunes, M. C. N. ; Brecht, J. K. ; Sargent, S. A. ; Morais, A. M. M. B.
• Date: 1995
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/5945
• Origin: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Subject(s): Strawberry; Forced air cooling; Packaging; Colour; Firmness; Ascorbic acid; Sugars; Water loss
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

'Sweet Charlie' strawberries were wrapped with PVC polymeric film, and forced-air precooled after delays of O, 6 or 8 hours at 30°C to study the effect of delaying precooling on physical and chemical quality characteristics of the strawberry. Non-wrapped fruits were used as a control. Evaluations were performed after storage for one week at 1°C plus one day at 20°C. Delaying the precooling resulted in less attractive fruits and loss of quality characteristics. Wrapped strawberries maintained better appearance and quality than nonwrapped berries.