Manutenção da qualidade de morangos submetidos ao 1-MCP e armazenados em temperatura ambiente e refrigerada

Abstract

The the economical importance of the strawberry culture in Brazil has stood out a lot in in recent years. With the change of eating habits occurred in the recent past, the consumers have started to demand quality attributes of the fruits and vegetables, such as appearance, flavor, aroma, nutritional value and absence of defects. Studies have been demonstrating the efficiency of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) in inhibiting the postharvest action of ethylene, thus extending, the shelflife of these products. In this study, the quality of strawberries submitted to 1-MCP at a concentration of 100 nL L-1 by a 2 hour exposure and stored at room and refrigerated temperature and the influence of two types of sanitizing agents were appraised. Furthermore, a comparison was conducted between the HPLC and colorimetry methods for vitamin C determination in strawberries. The use of sanitizers was of fundamental importance, maintaining the filamentous fungi and yeast count low, dichloroisocyanurate at 200 mg L-1 being that which presented the best results. The determination through HPLC detected higher vitamin C levels. The 1-MCP, at the concentration of 100 nL L-1, applied in the strawberries, for a 2 hour exposure in a tightly closed chamber, followed by storage for six days at room temperature was efficient in delaying the softening of the fruits. When stored for 18 days under refrigeration, it was efficient in extending the shelflife of these fruits for 8 days.