Good results of ozonated water in firmness retention and sanitization of strawberries

The effect of sanitization fresh-cut strawberry ?Camino Real? in ozonated water at a range of ozone concentrations on the postharvest quality, preservation of the fruits and numbers of naturally occurring microorganisms was investigated. The treatments consisted of immersion in ozonated water at 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 mg L-1, cooling at 10?C for 5 min, or immersion in a chlorine solution (Sumaveg?) at 150 mg L-1, and rinsing with 5 mg L-1 of water at 10?C for 10 min. The control treatment was simple washing under running tap water. The strawberries were submitted to selection, washing, cutting, sanitization, drainage, packing in polypropylene (PP) and storage for 12 d under refrigeration at 5?C and RH 90%. Physical, physiochemical, biochemical were performed as well as tests of the incidence of diseased fruits (%) to evaluate the postharvest quality parameters. The results of the experiments show that ozone treatment at all concentrations studied did not have any adverse effect on the fruit quality. The fruits submitted to ozonation at 0.2 mg.L-1 and chlorination were commercially acceptable on the 12th d of storage, due to its low weight loss. The strawberries submitted to sanitization with ozonated water at all concentrations (0.2, 0.5 and 1.0 mg.L-1) had better firmness than those submitted to chlorination and the control. The ozone solutions performed better than chlorination to reduce postharvest phytopathogens on the fruits, indicating excellent potential for sanitization of strawberries of the cultivar studied, due to lower disease incidence in relation to the other treatments. All the sanitization methods studied were effective in controlling the indicator bacteria of the hygiene-sanitary conditions. ? SourcesAqueous ozone treatment to extend the shelf life and maintain quality of fresh-cut strawberriesC.C.S. Coelho1, O. Freitas-Silva2, L.M.C. Cabral1,21Departamento de Tecnologia de Alimentos, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Serop?dica, Brazil2Embrapa Agroind?stria de Alimentos, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilVIII International Postharvest Symposium, Cartagena, Spain, 21-24 June 2016 Picture:?Herbalius.com