Investigation of Different Ozone Gas Doses Treatments on Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) Postharvest Quality During Cold Storage

Abstract

At postharvest, the main factor for the fruit and vegetable quality protection is to apply low storage temperature. Also, by the developing technology, alterative protection techniques start to come into prominence in addition cold storage. In a summary, the purpose of these technologies is to preserve food quality for longer time and to provide increasing of shelf-life of foods. One of the alternatives preserving technologies that has taken importance at recent years is ozone technology. In this study, different dozes of ozone gas effect on the broccoli quality were investigated. 0.05 ppm and 0.3 ppm ozone treatments were applied to samples that were kept in the vegetable compartment at refrigerator. Broccoli samples were evaluated with regards to vitamin C, chlorophyll, weight loss, total viable and mold-yeast count and visual quality parameters. As a result, it was indicated that ozone treatment has positive effects on vitamin C, chlorophyll, weight loss and visual quality during cold storage whereas hardness, total viable and mold-yeast count values do not be affected by ozone application.