Fruit quality of two mexican strawberry varieties and one introduced frigoconservated in high CO2

Abstract

Recently in México, the Colegio de Postgraduados  has generated strawberry varieties called “Jacona” and  “Zamorana”. Due to its recent appearance, it is necessary  to evaluate several factors, such as its postharvest behavior,  which is useful for evaluation and quality conservation  purposes, in relation to commercial varieties currently in  use. The objective was to evaluate the physiological changes  related to the senescence process of strawberry fruits stored  in refrigeration and high concentrations of CO₂. In order to do  this, fruits were harvested at commercial maturity, then stored  for 8 days with and without controlled atmosphere (15%  CO₂), there were 6 treatments as a result of the combination  of variety factor (Festival, Jacona and Zamorana) and CO₂  concentration (0.03 and 15%) in the atmosphere. After the  cooling period, the variables determined were: pulp firmness  (N), weight loss (%), external color (luminosity, saturation  index or chroma and pitch angle), vitamin C, total soluble  solids, pH, titratable acidity and ethanol and acetaldehyde  concentration. A completely randomized design with  factorial arrangement was applied and a mean comparison  with Tukeys tests (α= 0.05) was used to detect significant  differences. The results showed that after exposing the fruits  to an atmosphere with 0.03 or 15% CO₂ for 8 days at 2 ±1  °C, the three varieties showed similar behavior in terms of weight loss, firmness, luminosity, tone angle, saturation  index and total soluble solids. An atmosphere with 15% of  CO₂ maintained the vitamin C concentration in Mexican  varieties during storage but it decreased in ‘Festival’, and  caused an increase in the concentration of ethanol and  acetaldehyde in the three studied varieties.