Effects of alkaline electrolyzed water pretreatment on the physicochemical quality attributes of fresh nectarine during storage

Abstract

Nectarine (Prunus persica L.) is one of the most popular fruits because of its high bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, anthocyanins, flavonoids, vitamin C, and sugars (Zhang et al., 2019).Nectarine is a climacteric fruit which undergoes fast deterioration due to an increase in physiological responses. This leads to changes in color, aroma, texture, and other biochemical properties during postharvest handling (Temizkan et al., 2019). Loss of these qualities and parameters could result in limited shelf life and could increase the chances of rejection of fresh produce by the consumer (De Corato, 2020). Maintaining these qualities depends on an integrated strategy based on the optimum selection of pretreatments and storage conditions. Currently, chlorine solution prepared from sodium hypochlorite (50-200 mg/L) is the most used sanitizing agent for washing fresh produce (Graça et al., 2011;

Recent advances in activated water systems for the postharvest management of quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables

“…Youssef and Hussien (2020) found no significant difference in TSS, TA, and pH of acidic and ALEW treated "Valencia" oranges compared with the control samples. Similar observations were reported on "Crimson Blaze" nectarine (Belay et al, 2021), "Satsuma" orange (Shi et al, 2020), "Malvina" strawberries (Nour et al, 2021), and "Duke" blueberries (Chiabrando et al, 2017) treated with EW. With respect to vegetables, no significant changes in pH values were reported between EW treated and untreated red cabbages (Chen et al, 2018).…”

“…Belay et al. (2021) reported a higher percentage WL in “Crimson Blaze” nectarine dipped in chlorinated water (10.9%), when compared with ALEW (5.3%) and control (7.3%) samples after 31 days of −0.5°C storage. Hayta and Aday (2015) documented the highest weight loss in “0900Ziraat” cherries immersed in EW with 400 mg L −1 ACC at the end of 30 days storage at 4°C.…”

“…FFV color significantly affects how consumers perceive the product (Belay et al., 2021). As a result, any unfavorable color alteration in FFVs during processing/storage would hinder their consumption.…”

“…Although the above reports showed that EW leads to <5% WL, a high ACC was associated with the cause. High ACC in EW could trigger cell wall and tissue damage, leading to less internal turgor and loss of epidermis cohesiveness (Belay et al., 2021). Therefore, immersing FFVs in tap water led to lower percentage WL for “Deglet Nour” (Jemni et al., 2014) and “0900Ziraat” cherries (Hayta & Aday, 2015) compared with EW.…”

“…Another quality attribute that limits the long-term storage and marketability of FFVs is weight loss (WL), particularly when/if above 5% (Gallotta et al, 2018). EW has been reported to exert positive effects maintaining WL at <5% on FFVs (Belay et al, 2021;Hayta & Aday, 2015;Jemni et al, 2014). For "Deglet Nour" date palm immersed in acidic and ALEW treatments for 2 min, a WL of ≈2.5% and 2.1%, respectively, at the end of storage (30 days at 20 2016) reported about 10%-15% WL for button mushroom treated with Ar/O 2 -PAW and stored for 7 days in an environmental chamber at 20 ± 2 • C, 70% ± 5% RH; however, PAW could not maintain WL below 5% limit for longer storability.…”