Effects of nano-composites packaging and calcium chloride containers on quality characteristics and storage life of Siah Mashhad cherry cultivar

Increasing life sustainability foodsalong with safety monitoring and accordance of their quality with international standards requires packaging. Cherry fruit is rotten after harvest quickly. Therefore sometimes it is delivered to the customers while having not-promising quality. An experiments based on factorial based on a sheer random schemed has been conducted. In this paper, effect of four nano-composite containers and regular polymer containers with (0, 2, and 4) calcium chloride concentrations on post-harvest life and quality of Siah Mashhad cherry cultivar during zero, 22 and 44 days preservation in 0.5 C temperature and relative humidity between 85% to 95 % is investigated. Thus, values of the following indexes during preservation durationhave been studied and calculated: antioxidant, market-friendly, total acidity, total phenols, vitamin C,decay, tail browning index, PH and soluble solids in fruit shelf. Using nano package with 2% calcium chloride treatment significantly contributes in maintaining levels of antioxidants, total phenols, firmness and vitamin C during 45 days of storage. The highest organic acids and lowest degree of decay with zero, 2 and 4 percent of calcium chloride has been observed in nano packages compared to regular packages.

Nano composite, storage life, cherry, calcium chloride, antioxidants