Quality changes of fresh-cut pomegranate arils during shelf life as affected by deficit irrigation and postharvest vapour treatments

© 2014 Society of Chemical Industry. BACKGROUND: The effect of two sustained deficit irrigation (SDI) strategies, compared to a control, on postharvest physicochemical, microbial, sensory quality attributes and anthocyanin content of fresh-cut pomegranates arils throughout 18 days at 5°C was studied. Furthermore, the effect of vapour treatments (4, 7 and 10s) compared to a conventional sanitizing treatment with NaClO on such quality parameters in combination with the preharvest treatments was also studied. RESULTS: According to sensory analyses, the shelf life of arils from control and SDI-irrigated fruit was established in 14 and 18 days at 5°C, respectively, showing 4 and 7s vapour treatment time the best sensory quality. No significant change was observed in physicochemical quality attributes, across all treatments during storage, while low microbial loads were registered (<3 log CFU g^-1) after shelf life. Postharvest treatments that had least effect on anthocyanin content on processing day were 7 and 10s. CONCLUSION: Vapour treatments of 7-10s applied to pomegranate arils led to an extended shelf life up to 18 days at 5°C with better results in SDI-irrigated samples with a water saving of 6-11%.