Cold storage agent as a treatment to maintain quality of peanut sprouts in logistics

Abstract

Logistics transportation is the critical procedure that sprouts must go through from producers to consumers, but during this transportation, it is very easy to cause quality deterioration. Generally, the quality of fresh peanut sprouts during cold chain transportation is maintained by using the high polymer phase change cold storage agent (CSA). In this research, different quantities of CSA were used to maintain peanut sprouts quality，and the effects of CSA on sprouts quality under simulated transportation conditions were investigated for 5 days, including overall quality, water content, ascorbic acid content, total phenolic and total flavonoid contents, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, weight loss rate, along with the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). According to the overall quality, it is meaningful to observe the changes of each index within 3 days. Results indicated that 4 bags of CSA could decrease the temperature to 8.4 °C within 580 min and keep rising slowly until the maximum temperature reached 18.9 °C at 4260 min. In addition, it effectively prevented the loss of water (93.87%) and ascorbic acid (5.38 mg/100 g), as well as inhibited the production of MDA, which was attributed to a slow metabolism in low temperatures. Moreover, the 4 bags of CSA had no negative effects on the contents of total phenolic and flavonoid along with CAT activity of peanut sprouts, and the sensory quality was maintained at an optimum level. In conclusion, it had a positive effect on the maintenance of quality during transportation when the mass ratio of sprouts to CSA was 15:8 and the volume ratio of styrofoam container and CSA was 10:1. • CSAs reduce the temperature in the styrofoam container to 8.4 °C within 580 min, then reach a maximum of 18.9 °C at 4260 min. • CSAs prevent the loss of water and ascorbic acid, and inhibit the malondialdehyde production. • CSAs maintain the quality of peanut sprouts in the logistics.