COMBINED TREATMENTS OF MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING WITH AMINOETHOXYVINYLGLYCINE MAINTAINED FRUIT QUALITY IN SWEET CHERRY THROUGHOUT COLD STORAGE AND SHELF LIFE

Abstract

The effects of combined aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG) and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) treatments on quality attributes of '0900 Ziraat' sweet cherry fruit during the cold storage and shelf life were investigated in this study. Significantly lower weight loss and decay ratios were observed in all treatments throughout the cold storage period as compared to the control. A similar case was also observed referring to the shelf life. MAP treatments were found to be more effective in retarding the weight loss and decay ratio. Higher hue angle values were measured from AVG-treated fruit at harvest. Similarly, hue angle of AVG and MAP-treated fruit were also higher than for the control in all periods of cold storage and on the 7th and 21st day of shelf life. AVG-treated fruit had higher firmness values than the control at harvest. However, higher firmness values were measured from MAP-treated fruit during the cold storage and shelf life. At the end of cold storage, lower SSC and higher titratable acidity values were observed in AVG and MAP-treated fruit than in the control. AVG + MAP treatments yielded significantly higher vitamin C, total phenolics and antioxidant activity values than the control. Contrarily, the control fruit had significantly higher total monomeric anthocyanin than the other treatments. Based on current findings, it was concluded that combined AVG + MAP treatments could be used as a beneficial tool to maintain the quality of sweet cherry fruit throughout the cold storage and shelf life.