Quality changes of fresh-cut pomegranate arils during shelf life as affected by deficit irrigation and postharvest vapour treatments.

María E Peña-Estévez, Perla A Gómez, Francisco Artés, Encarna Aguayo, Ginés Benito Martínez-Hernández, Mariano Otón, Alejandro Galindo, Francisco Artés-Hernández

Index: J. Sci. Food Agric. 95 , 2325-36, (2015)

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Abstract

The effect of two sustained deficit irrigation (SDI) strategies, compared to a control, on postharvest physicochemical, microbial, sensory quality attributes and anthocyanin content of fresh-cut pomegranates arils throughout 18 days at 5 °C was studied. Furthermore, the effect of vapour treatments (4, 7 and 10 s) compared to a conventional sanitizing treatment with NaClO on such quality parameters in combination with the preharvest treatments was also studied.According to sensory analyses, the shelf life of arils from control and SDI-irrigated fruit was established in 14 and 18 days at 5 °C, respectively, showing 4 and 7 s vapour treatment time the best sensory quality. No significant change was observed in physicochemical quality attributes, across all treatments during storage, while low microbial loads were registered (<3 log CFU g(-1)) after shelf life. Postharvest treatments that had least effect on anthocyanin content on processing day were 7 and 10 s.Vapour treatments of 7-10 s applied to pomegranate arils led to an extended shelf life up to 18 days at 5 °C with better results in SDI-irrigated samples with a water saving of 6-11%.© 2014 Society of Chemical Industry.