Prolonging shelf life and reducing postharvest losses of strawberry using packaging materials and precooling approaches

Implementing sustainable postharvest management techniques under subtropical conditions is recommended to enhance shelf life and decrease postharvest losses, particularly when resources are scarce. For better postharvest management of strawberries, various packaging materials and precooling methods were used in this study. Statistical variations in physical parameters along with chemical attributes of the fruits were assessed. Strawberries kept at normal temperature (24±1°C) without any packaging material was considered as control.  A factorial experiment was conducted following a Completely Randomized Design and the treatments were replicated three times to minimize possible errors. In respect of most of the studied parameters no statistical variation was found between two packaging materials as perforated cellophane and disposal foam food containers and two precooling approaches as forced air cooling and hydro-cooling approaches. Plastic clamshell significantly maintained acceptable color, firmness, greater ascorbic acid, anthocyanins, total phenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, and total soluble solids, and prolonged shelf life of strawberries by more than three days over other packaging materials.  Additionally, among three precooling approaches, coolBot^® outperformed other precooling methods to lower postharvest losses (30.11 %), decay (25.59 %), improved firmness (32.33 N), color (21.77 °h), anthocyanins (31.41 mg/100 g FW), TSS (7.52), ascorbic acid (63.90 mg/100 g FW), total phenols (131.40 mg/100 g FW), flavonoids (16.9 mg/100 g FW), carotenoids (0.78 mg/100 g FW), and thereby expediting strawberry shelf life (>3 days) in comparison to the control. For decreasing strawberry postharvest losses, plastic clamshell packing and quick precooling with coolBot^® appear to be the most promising option.

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