Effect of ozonation on table grapes preservation in cold storage
Special Symposium - Innovations in Food Technology (LMC Congress)
Process & Product Innovation (Food-4b)
Keywords: table grapes, Sultanina, postharvest, B.Cinerea, preservation, ozone
Internal breakdown and fruit decay are the main causes of table grapes post harvest losses. One of the most high-incidence postharvest diseases of stored fruit is ‘gray mold’, caused by Botrytis Cinerea. Problems associated with the use of synthetic fungicides, in order to control diseases, such as the proliferation of resistant strains of pathogens or concerns about the environmental contamination have increased the need for development of alternative treatments. The use of ozone in the processing of foods has recently come to the forefront as a result of the recent approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, approving the use of ozone as an anti-microbial agent for food treatment, storage and processing. Treating fruits and vegetables with ozone has been used to increase shelf-life, in many recent studies.
During this study, artificially inoculated table grapes, via two different ways, with B. Cinerea, were stored at 2-3oC and 85-90% RH under different ozone dosages. Four different ozonation strategies were tested (every day ozonation with low and high ozone dosage, three day periodical ozonation and initial ozonation) in order to achieve prolongation of table grapes shelf-life time. Decay incidence, external disease appearance, number of infected grapes, weight loss as well as a variety of quality parameters such as sugars and proteins content were checked on a three day basis. According to the obtained results, no significant alteration of table grapes quality and organoleptic characteristics was observed after their exposure to ozone atmosphere. Moreover, the low ozone dosage process (0.3ppm) resulted to a sufficient restriction of fruit decay due to fungal contamination and secured a 40days-period of storage time. However, the observed weight loss was a bit higher on the treated samples compared to the untreated ones. From technicoeconomical point of view the low dosage ozonation process in a daily basis combined with the cold storage seems to be a promising method for table grapes preservation.
Presented Thursday 20, 10:10 to 10:15, in session Process & Product Innovation (Food-4b).
