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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #92236
Title: STORAGE QUALITY OF BELL PEPPERS PRETREATED WITH HOT WATER AND POLYETHYLENE PACKAGING

Author
item GONZALEZ-AGUILAR, G. - DEPT OF FOOD & VEG TECH
item CRUZ, R. - DEPT OF FOOD & VEG TECH
item BAEZ, R. - DEPT OF FOOD & VEG TECH
item Wang, Chien

Submitted to: Food Quality Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/16/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Bell peppers are a important crop in the U.S., Mexico, and many other countries. However, peppers are highly perishable after harvest. They are susceptible to fungal infections, shriveling and softening. Peppers are also sensitive to chilling temperatures. At temperatures below 10C, peppers develop chilling injury symptoms such as sheet pitting and decay. We found that hot water treatments prior to cold storage can reduce the incidence of fungal infections and alleviate chilling injury. Combination of hot water dips and polyethylene packaging can further improve the quality of peppers including retention of firmness, reduction of water loss, and retardation of color change. Information provided in this paper is useful to other researchers and is beneficial to the produce industry and consumers.

Technical Abstract: Treatments of bell peppers (Capsicum annuum, L.) With hot water at 45C for 15 minutes or 53C for 4 minutes prior to storage at 8C markedly reduced the incidence of fungal infections. However, the overall quality of the hot water treated fruit was not much better than that of untreated fruit primarily because of high water loss which induced shriveling during storage. When hot water treated pepper fruits were subsequently placed in the low density polyethylene bags, storage quality of these peppers improved tremendously including retention of firmness, reduction of water loss, retardation of color change, and alleviation of chilling injury. Total soluble solids, titratable acidity, and pH values in the pepper fruit were generally not affected by these treatment. A 4 minute dip at 53C followed by packaging with 0.065 mm low density polyethylene film was found to be very effective in maintaining pepper quality. This treatment inhibited respiration rate, reduced decay, retained turgidity and green color, and maintained excellent overall quality after 28 days of storage at 8C. Hot water treatment combined with polyethylene film packaging has been proved to be a promising technique for improving storage quality of bell peppers.