Irrigation deficit does not affect fresh cut peach & ascorbic acid improves the quality

Agriculture in semi - arid areas faces the scarcity of waterresources. The effect of deficit irrigation (DI) on quality of ?Flordastar? peach slices stored in modified atmosphere packaging was studied. The irrigation treatments were: without DI (NDI): watered at 120% of crop evapotranspiration, and two DI programmed according to a signal intensity (SI) of the maximum daily trunk shrinkage (MDS) respect to NDI trees: DI1 trees irrigated to maintain MDS SI values close to unity and DI2 trees which followed the same program than DI1 but watered every two days. Once harvested, peaches were cut in 6 - 8 pieces and two groups were made: ?Control?, packaged in polypropylene trays, and ?Antibrowning? in which pieces were treated with 9% ascorbic acid (AA) before packaging. In both cases, a passive modified atmosphere (16.5 kPa O2 and 3.5 kPa CO2) was generated throughout storage at 5 ?C. On days 0, 5 and 8, firmness, vitamin C, microbial counts and sensory quality was evaluated. As results, DH1 and DH2 peaches showed higher firmness on the initial day than NDI fruits but no differences between irrigation treatments during storage were found. Initially, antibrowning samples showed higher AA content than Control. During shelf life, no differences in AA content were registered between both kinds of treatments, following a decreasing trend with time. In general, an increasing tendency of dehydroascorbic acid content during storage, without differences among treatments, was found. AA treated peaches reached the best rating by the sensory panel. In all treatments, microbial counts (mesophilic, yeast, moulds, Salmonella spp. Listeria spp. and E. coli) were below the legal European limits. As main conclusions: compared to Control, DI strategies induced a similar quality, while saving an important water amount, and the use of AA provides a better appearance of the slices allowing a shelf life of 8 days.The slice above in the picture belongs to DI Control peach after 8 days; below, DI Antibrowning peach after the same time.Original title, authors and source:COMBINING MAP, DEFICIT IRRIGATION AND ANTIBROWNING TREATMENT FOR KEEPING QUALITY OF FRESH - CUT PEACHESFalag?n, N.1,2(*), Aguayo, E.1,2, G?mez, P.A.2, Art?s -Hern?ndez, F.1,2, Conejero, W.3, Ot?n, M.2 and Art?s, F.1,2natalia.falagan@upct.es1 Postharvest and Refrigeration Group. Department of Food Engineering. Technical University of Cartagena (UPCT). ETSIA. Paseo Alfonso XIII, 48. 30203 Cartagena, Murcia, Spain. Tel. +34 968 3257502 Food Quality and Health Group. Institute of Plant Biotechnology (IBV - UPCT). Campus Muralla del Mar, Edificio I+D+I. 30202 Cartagena, Murcia, Spain3 Department of Irrigation, CEBAS - CSIC, PO Box 164, E -30100 Espinardo, Murcia, SpainCA MA 2013, XI International Controlled & Modified Atmosphere Research Conference Trani (Italy), 3-7 June 2013 ?