Effect of chemical treatment, storage and packaging on physico-chemical properties of sunflower microgreens

Abstract

Objective of this investigation was to study effects of chemical treatments [ethanol vapour (EV), acetaldehyde vapour (AV), citric acid (CA), ascorbic acid (AA), citric acid + ethanol (CA+E) and citric acid + ascorbic acid (CA+AA), water as control] and packaging materials (polystyrene and LDPE) on postharvest quality sunflower microgreens for 16 days (sampling at 4th day) stored at 10±1 °C. Total soluble solids first increased with storage (4.5 on 0th day and 5.7 on 8th day) and then decreased (5.1 on 16th day) whereas acidity followed a continuous increase with storage time (0.040% on 0th day to 0.072 on 16th day). Both fresh weight and dry weight also increased with storage period. Fresh weight and dry weight were10.03g and 8.61g on 0th day and 10.47g and 12.46 on 16th day respectively.