Effects of pulsed light on the postharvest quality and shelf-life of highbush blueberries (cv. Draper)
Anubhav Pratap‐Singh, Maryam Shojaei, Anika Singh, Yutong Ye, Ronit Mandal, Yifan Yan, Joana Pico, Eric M. Gerbrandt, Simone D. Castellarin
Abstract
Blueberry consumption has been a burgeoning interest attributed to their nutritional and health benefits. However, the main limitation to blueberry marketability is their perishability due to water loss, fungal, and mechanical damage during post-harvest preservation. In this study, pulsed light (PL) treatments with doses of 3, 6 and 9 J cm -2 were applied in the 6-week storage of highbush blueberry (cv. Draper) at 0.5°C under 90-95% relative humidity (RH) conditions. The quality changes of berry were assessed by using physicochemical attributes and antioxidant activity bi-weekly at week 0, 2, 4, 6. The results show that in spite of the partial loss of the antioxidant activity and total soluble solids (TSS), PL at dose of 6 J cm -2 was found to increase firmness and titratable acidity (TA), and decrease weight loss, rot incidence, and pH during post-harvest storage, which lead to a better maintenance of blueberry quality and shelf-life extension.