Extending the postharvest life of wild blueberries with proprietary plastic pallet covers

Abstract

Wild blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium Ait) face limited consumption due to their short production period of one month. The lack of specialized storage infrastructure quickly saturates the local market. A cost-effective solution using existing facilities and proprietary plastic pallet covers is proposed. This alternative aims to extend the shelf life of wild blueberries to remain marketable for extended periods. This project aimed to evaluate several parameters to optimize storage conditions specifically for this fruit from the Lac-Sainte-Jean region of Quebec. Two seasons, 2021 and 2022, were considered, and the experimental setup included two temperature regimes (0 and 4 °C), four different polymer types (polyethylene; Lifespan®, and PrimePro®, SPAC®), three carbon dioxide concentrations (0 %, 10 %, and 20 %), the presence or absence of sulfur dioxide (SO2) releasing patches, and two fruit types (sorted or unsorted). Fruit quality was then evaluated, considering weight loss on the pallet, berry color, firmness, acidity, total soluble solids, and overall quality. In both cases, the fruit was stored for approximately one month. It was observed that fruit could be kept effectively for up to one month using PrimePro® covers at 0 °C.