Abstract
Dehydration limits bell pepper postharvest life. Research had focused on waxes and individual sealed packages used to prolong shelf-life. Even though, the fruit natural package -the cuticle- is unknown; besides, cuticle functions as a barrier to protect fruits against excessive water loss. The objective of this work was to characterize cuticle changes and their relationships with fruit quality during postharvest handling. Green `Wonder' bell peppers were stored under marketing conditions (20C; 65-70% RH). Following cuticle isolation determinations included weight changes (CW), permeability and soluble cuticular lipids (SCL). In addition, quality characteristics like firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA) and CO2 production were monitored every other day. CW and SCL decreased from 2798 to 1398 and 145 to 48 μg/cm2, respectively. Permeability was also reduced from 11 to 10 mg/cm2*h. CO2 climateric was reached between the 9 and 12th day peaking with 25 mg/kg*h. Firmness decreased from 2.1 to 1.1 Kg*f, while no noticeable changes were observed on TSS and TA.
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