THE INFLUENCE OF PRETREATMENT TECHNOLOGY AND PACKAGING MATERIAL ON THE QUALITY OF FRESH GOOSEBERRIES DURING STORAGE

Although gooseberries are still considered a minor berry crop, there is increasing interest of growers, processors and consumers for the fresh fruit and in processed products. One of the most important tasks is to offer consumers fresh gooseberries during long time maintaining sensory and other quality properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality changes of fresh gooseberries during storage when pretreated with ozone and disinfection solution, and packed in two different materials. The experiments were done in the Faculty of Food Technology, Latvia University of Agriculture (LLU). Samples were collected from the farm “Mucenieki” in a fully ripe stage. One third of the samples were pretreated with a 1.5% disinfection solution “Natureseal-AS5”, the other third was pretreated with ozonated vapour, and the last part was untreated as a control sample. All samples were packed in two package materials: biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP), and AgriFresh (oriented polypropylene (OPP) with antifog coating and specific perforation). The content of ascorbic acid, total phenols, anthocyanins, soluble solids, titratable acids, and the gas composition in the headspace of package of fresh gooseberries of cultivar ‘Tukuma Konfeksu’ were analysed. The largest change of gas composition in the headspace of the packages was observed during the first 5 days of storage when a rapid decrease of O₂ and increase of CO₂ occurred. A decrease in titratable acids and ascorbic acid during the storage was observed in all samples. The lowest soluble solids content was detected after 22 days of storage in samples pretreated with ozone. The total phenolic content decreased during the storage but there were no significant differences between pretreatment technologies. The content of anthocyanins in berries pretreated with ozone and disinfection solution was higher than in control samples.