Sun and convective mild air curing impact on Persian shallot quality changes and sprouting during postharvest storage

Abstract

Summary Persian shallot is a valuable vegetable because of its nutritional value and medicinal attributes, but it has a short storage life. In the current study, the effects of curing treatments on Persian shallot postharvest decay, sprouting, colour and biochemical changes were evaluated. Treatments included: control, sun curing and convective mild air curing at 40 and 50 °C with 1 m s−1 air velocity. The results showed that samples of sun curing were lost after 1 month of storage. The lowest level of decay was observed in curing at 40 °C, while the highest was in control. The sprouting was first observed in control at 4 months of storage, while no sprouting was observed in curing at 50 °C even after 6 months of storage. The amount of pyruvic acid, total phenol and firmness of tissue were increased during storage in all samples. The colour changes in the curing at 50 °C were more than the other treatments. The energy consumption for convective treatments was obtained as 31.25 and 40.83 MJ kg−1 fresh shallot for 40 and 50 °C respectively. These findings showed that mild air curing has the potential to extend shallot storage life.