Aplicação de hidroresfriamento e sanitização em morangos 'San Andreas' e seus efeitos sobre a qualidade pós-colheita

Abstract

The strawberry has a huge importance in the consumer market, because their organoleptic characteristics and beneficial molecules to human health are attractive to the customers. However, this fruit has a big sensitivity to mechanical and pathological damage, being the main cause of low large-scale commercialization. To contain these problems, some techniques are used to improve the vegetable sanity, such as the rapid reduction of the internal temperature before storage, being necessary to allocate the fruits in packages to reduce mechanical damage, extend the shelf life and facilitate the marketing in natura. The main objective was to evaluate the efficiency of techniques about sanitization and heat treatment in pre- and post-harvest strawberries allocated in PET packaging and stored at room temperature and cold chamber, in order to reduce the pathogenic action and extend the shelf-life of the fruit. Where used strawberry of the San Andreas cultivar produced in slabs in a greenhouse with fertigation system. The treatments applicated were: peracetic acid in pre-harvest, peracetic acid in pre harvest + hydrocooling, hydrocooling, hydrocooling + calcium chloride in post-harvest, and hydrocooling + peracetic acid in post-harvest, where 10 fruits were storage in PET clamshells weighing 80 g. The packages were kept at room temperature at 20 °C (±2 °C) and evaluated after 2, 4 and 6 days, and in a cold chamber at 0 °C (±2) for 7 and 9 days, they were evaluated after remaining over 48 hours at room temperature. Where evaluated: occurrence of pathogens, mechanical damage, coloration, loss of fresh mass, firmness, freshness, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, pH, citric acid, polyphenol and anthocyanin content and antioxidant capacity. The hydrocooling treatment associated with peracetic acid were able to minimize the effects of the storage period on the loss of weight and firmness in both conditions evaluated, taking this into account, the treatment was able to promote the maintenance of physical-chemical characteristics of the strawberry, extending its self-life by up to 9 days about the control. The hydrocooling caused discoloration of the fruti epidermis due to the huge sensibility to post harvest handlings, without affecting the bioactive compounds. Keeping strawberries under refrigerated storage or treating them with hydrocooling preserves their characteristics, and there may be promising results When termal treatment is associated with sanitization, despite the effects on the fruit epidermis.