Quality characteristics and shelf life of pepper fruits as influenced by storage conditions and pepper varieties

Abstract

The main aim of this research was to study the effect of storage conditions (room temperature and refrigeration temperature) on the quality (weight loss and chemical composition change on pepper fruits) and shelf life of different varieties of pepper (Alonso Red, Lumos Yellow, Relampago Red, Dicaprio Yellow, Dicaprio Green, Relampago Orange, Conical Century White, Rush Red and Rush Green). The results indicated that, the accumulated weight loss of pepper fruits increases with increasing storage period. The highest value of the accumulated weight loss of pepper fruits (43.22 %) was found for green Rush variety at room temperature (25 oC) after 20 days storage, while, the lowest value of the accumulated weight loss (25.44 %) was found for yellow Lumos variety at cold storage (10 oC) after 46 days storage. The shelf- life of pepper fruits increased from 20 to 46 days for all varieties under study, when the storage temperatures decreased from 25 to 10°C. Average total soluble solids (TSS) increased from 3.50 to 5.63 % when the storage temperature changed from 10 to 25 oC for all varieties used in this experiment.