Combination of electrolysed water, UV-C and superatmospheric O<inf>2</inf> packaging for improving fresh-cut broccoli quality

The effects of neutral electrolysed water (NEW), ultraviolet light C (UV-C) and superatmospheric O2 packaging (HO), single or combined, on the quality of fresh-cut kailan-hybrid broccoli for 19 days at 5°C were studied. As controls, washing with water and sanitation with NaClO were both used. Electrolyte leakage, sensory, microbial and nutritional quality changes throughout shelf-life were studied. At day 15, the combined treatments achieved lower mesophilic and psychrophilic growth compared to the single ones. Single treatments produced higher ascorbate peroxidase (APX) reductions just after its application, while superoxide dismutase (SOD) showed the opposite behaviour. After 5 days at 5°C, a great increase of APX and guaiacol peroxidase (GPX) activity was observed, NEW+UV-C+HO and HO-including treatments achieving the highest and the lowest APX increases, respectively. UV-C-including treatments produced the highest ¿-linolenic acid (ALA) decreases ranging 35-38% over control contents on the processing day. NEW-including treatments greatly reduced, throughout shelf-life, ALA and stearic acid (SA) content by 27-44% and 31-61%, respectively. Total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity (1415mgChAEkg-1fw and 287mgAAEkg-1fw, respectively) remained quite constant during shelf-life. In general, the treatments and their possible combinations seem to be promising techniques to preserve, or even enhance, the quality of fresh-cut kailan-hybrid broccoli and, probably, other vegetables. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.