THE EFFECTS OF VACUUM COOLING ON THE QUALITY CRITERIA OF SOME VEGETABLES

This study was conducted at the Horticulture Departments of Uludag University Faculty of Agriculture and Çukurova University Faculty of Agriculture. The effects of vacuum precooling on the quality of parameters of 2 lettuce cultivars were investigated.

As the result of the study, the necessity of a precooling application on horticultural products just after harvest was understood. The packaging of lettuces in porous polyethylene bags before precooling was especially effective in the minimization of weight loss. The precooling of products to 2 °C gave more effective results compared with precooling to 4 °C and non-precooling. It is thought that it will be beneficial to determine the different precooling applications for each product empirically.