POSTHARVEST PHYSIOLOGY OF SOME VEGETABLE CROPS

Abstract

Baby pea (Pisum sativum L.) shoots and baby spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) leaves as a new ready to eat baby leaf vegetable sprouts has a little information available about it, and since it is a fresh herb it have very short storage period after harvest. In this context we determined the effects of different passive modified atmosphere packaging applications for prolonging the shelf life of baby - pea shoots and baby spinach leaves. For baby pea shoot experiment, the performances of modified atmosphere packaging based on low density polyethylene (LDPE) film with different perforations (zero, 4 and 8 perforations/package) and different package sizes (size 1 25 × 20 cm and size 2 30 × 20 cm) was examined at different storage temperatures (0°C and 5°C) with 90-95% RH for 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 days during storage. As for baby spinach leaf experiment, the performances of modified atmosphere packaging based on low density polyethylene (LDPE) film or smart film in different package sizes (size 1 25 × 20 cm and size 2 30 × 20 cm) was examined at different storage temperatures (0-1°C and 4-5°C) with 90-95% RH for 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20 days during storage. Some quality parameters, such as visual quality (graded to scale), decay, and off-odor, were evaluated. Vitamin C, carotenoid content, chlorophyll reading, dry matter, protein and fiber were also analyzed. In addition, the atmosphere composition inside the packages was measured at each observation.