Quality changes during storage of spinach and lettuce baby leaf
Antonio Ferrante, Anna Spinardi and Ilaria Mignani
Abstracts Book, 6th International Postharvest symposium, 8-12 April 2009, Antalya, Turkey. 256 pages.
2009
บทคัดย่อ
Spinach and lettuce are important vegetable products in the minimally processed leafy vegetables industry. The quality parameters of these products are represented by leaf pigments that affect the visual appearance and the internal quality components such as ascorbic acid, carotenoids and phenols. Storage experiments were performed on leafy vegetables harvest at commercial stage and stored at 4 or 10°C. The ascorbic acid, chlorophyll, carotenoids and phenols were determined at beginning the experiments and until 13 days of storage. Ethylene production and accumulation was also measured. Results obtained showed at chlorophyll and carotenoids in both species did not changed until 6-9 days of storage in both temperatures. Phenols showed oscillation trends in both species during storage in both temperatures. Ascorbic acid declined during storage. In lettuce the ascorbic acid declined immediately during the first days of storage in both storage temperatures. In spinach the ascorbic acid decreased in leaves stored in both temperatures, but at higher temperature (10°C) the degradation process was faster. Ethylene production was higher at beginning of experiment than declined. The ethylene accumulation in the sealed bags was not statistically different.