COMMERCIAL ROOM COOLING, HYDROCOOLING, AND FORCED-AIR COOLING OF SNAP BEANS IN WOODEN CRATES AND CORRUGATED CARTONS: EFFECTS ON QUALITY.

Abstract

Snap beans were room cooled (RC) or forced-air cooled (FA) in a 4.5°C commercial cold storage room, or hydrocooled (HC) in a commercial flume-type unit with 4°C water containing 175 ppm NaOCl. The beans were packed in wirebound wooden crates (WC) or waxed corrugated fiberboard cartons (FC) before (RC, FA) or after (HC) precooking and stored one week at 10°C before evaluation. Ascorbic acid, chlorophyll and fiber contents did not differ among treatments, while moisture content and per cent unshrivelled beans were lowest in FA and highest in HC, and lower in WC than in FC containers. HC reduced development of mechanical damage symptoms (browning) and decay compared to RC and FA. The former effect was attributable to the presence of NaOCl rather than leaching or increased cooling rate in HC. HC beans packed in FC had the highest per cent sound beans and lowest per cent beans showing mechanical damage symptoms of all the treatment combinations tested.