Effectf of temperature anf packing materials on the physical and chemical properties of broccoli

Abstract

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) is a perishable vegetable which has short storage time. Therefore, application of postharvest techniques is needed to protect its marketability. This study investigates the effects of temperature and packaging materials on physical (appearance, overall change of color, weight loss, total soluble solids, firmness) and chemical properties (L-ascorbic acid, titrate acidity, chlorophyll content, antioxidant capacity and total phenolic compounds). Different temperature (2°C, 5°C, 10°C and Room temperature) was applied to store broccoli. Broccoli stored at 2°C remained most analysed attributes during 15-days storage. Combining with low temperature (2°C) packaging broccoli with zip PE, combine PE and wrap PE extended storage time for 35 days. Of three packaging materials Zip PE showed to be the most effective one when maintaining most of the quality parameters such as titrate acidity (0.01%), antioxidant capacity (86.95%), moisture content (91.08%), total soluble solids (4.91 °Brix). Key words: Broccoli, storage, temperature, PE packaging, antioxidant capacity, total phenolic compounds