The use of negative temperatures during storage and transportation of apple fruits

Abstract

The main task on the way of vegetable produce from producer to consumer is reducing losses and preservation of its physical, chemical, nutritional and organoleptic properties for a long time. Refrigeration, being the basis of all up-to-date technologies for separate sections of the continuous cold transport chain, allows prolonging shelf life of fruit and vegetable products without considerable loss of quality. The paper presents research results of the negative temperature influence on keeping capacity of apple fruits, grown in the Moscow region. During storage, the control batch was stored in a chamber at (1 ± 0.5) °C and the experimental one at minus (2 ± 0.5) °C. It was revealed that physicochemical properties, typical of each variety, determined the degree of resistance of fruits to various storage conditions. The interconnection between the concentration of soluble substances in fruits and their resistance to low temperatures was defined. The researchers managed to reduce fruit diseases as well as the rate of decline in the level of organic acids, sugars, pectin and tannins in comparison with conventional storage technologies using positive (1 ± 0.5) °C temperatures. The commercial output increased by (4.9–13.6) %, depending on the apple variety; natural mass loss of a number of investigated fruits decreased to 5% during 6 months of storage. It has been established that maintaining minus (2 ± 0.5) °C temperature conditions during storage and transportation allowed reducing losses up to 15% and increasing shelf life 1.2 - 1.5 times.