EFFECTS OF MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE IMPOSED WITH THE PALLIFLEX SYSTEM ON POSTHARVEST FRUIT QUALITY OF 'ZIRAAT 0900' CHERRIES

The use of the Pallifex storage system is becoming popular and suitable for short and long term storage under CA and ULO conditions for many fruits and vegetables. In this system, instead of whole cold room, a desired atmosphere is created in individual pallets.
In this research, the effects of different atmospheric compositions on fruit quality and postharvest life of ‘Ziraat 0900’ cherries were investigated. For this purpose, cherries were stored in five different atmospheric compositions (21% O₂+0.03% CO₂ (PL-1-Control), 2% O₂+0.5% CO₂ (PL-2), 2% O₂+7% CO₂ (PL-3), 2% O₂+14% CO₂ (PL-4) and 2% O₂+20% CO₂ (PL-5) at 0°C temperature with 90-95% relative humidity. Physical and chemical analyses such as weight loss, flesh firmness, stem browning, soluble solids, titratable acidity, skin color (chroma, hue), and decay incidence were carried out on the fruit samples taken from different storage conditions at 20 days intervals. Experimental results showed that, low O₂ and high CO₂ containing atmosphere prolonged the storage life of ‘Ziraat 0900’ cherry fruit by maintaining fruit quality and green stem color. In conclusion, it seems that the postharvest quality of ‘Ziraat 0900’ cherry fruit were successfully maintained at 0°C temperature and 95% RH conditions up to 60 days in Palliflex storage conditions.