LAUSR

Consumers around the world appreciate strawberries for their taste. They have low calories and high concentrations of soluble fibers, vitamin C and flavonoids. This paper verified the combined effect of O2, CO2, and N2O levels on ‘Oso Grande’ strawberries stored at 10° C, under controlled atmosphere (CA). Five different gas mixtures were used: 0.03 kPa CO2 + 20 kPa O2, 80 kPa N2O + 20 kPa O2, 90 kPa O2 + 10 kPa N2, 60 kPa O2 + 40 kPa CO2, and 20 kPa O2 + 20 kPa CO2 + 60 kPa N2O. The lowest incidence of postharvest decay was observed with treatment 20 kPa O2 + 20 kPa CO2 + 60 kPa N2O, followed by 80 kPa N2O + 20 kPa O2 and 90 kPa O2 + 10 kPa N2. The treatment 60 kPa O2 + 40 kPa CO2 induced an increase in the production of acetaldehyde and ethanol, and these levels were considered inadequate POST HARVEST TECHNOLOGY Article Quality of ‘Oso Grande’ strawberries is affected by O2, CO2 and N2O concentrations during controlled atmosphere storage Luis Carlos Cunha Junior1, Cristiane Maria Ascari Morgado1*, Angelo Pedro Jacomino2, Marcos José Trevisan2, Marise Cagnin Martins Parisi3, Gilmarcos de Carvalho Corrêa1, Gustavo Henrique de Almeida Teixeira4 1.Universidade Federal de Goiás Escola de Agronomia Setor de Horticultura Goiânia (GO), Brazil. 2.Universidade de São Paulo Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz” Departamento de Produção Vegetal Laboratório Pós-colheita de Produtos Hortícolas Piracicaba (SP), Brazil. 3.Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios Polo Centro-Sul Piracicaba (SP), Brazil. 4.Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias Departamento de Produção Vegetal Jaboticabal (SP), Brazil. *Corresponding author: [email protected] Received: June 12, 2018 – Accepted: Sept. 18, 2018 for human consumption. The first factor, named senescence, displayed a positive correlation with soluble solids, luminosity, hue angle, firmness and incidence of decay. The second factor, named CA-induced injury, showed that total acidity correlated negatively with ethanol and acetaldehyde levels. Hierarchical cluster analysis indicated that strawberries stored under 80 kPa N2O + 20 kPa O2 for 14 days more closely resembled the quality of fresh fruit at the moment of harvest. ‘Oso Grande’ strawberries stored at 10 oC under 80 kPa N2O + 20 kPa O2 and 90 kPa O2 + 10 kPa N2 were in better conditions, with no metabolic alterations, showing that these are the ideal storage conditions.