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Developing Low Pressure Treatments for Disinfesting Fresh Fruits

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2012 Dallas, Texas, July 29 - August 1, 2012  121338145.(doi:10.13031/2013.41881)
Authors:   S Jiao, S Wang, J A Johnson, T L Davenport
Keywords:   Low pressure/low temperature (LPLT), Hypobaric chamber, Codling moth, Tolerance, Quality, Disinfestation

To develop low pressure/low temperature (LPLT) disinfestation treatments for fresh apples, the LPLT system stability and performance were evaluated first. Different life stages of coding moth were treated in hypobaric chambers maintained at 10C and 1.33 kPa with nearly saturated humidity to evaluate the tolerance of insects. Weight loss, color, firmness, titratable acidity (TA), and soluble solid content (SSC) were selected as quality parameters to evaluate the quality changes of Red Delicious apples after LPLT treatment. Results showed that the regulating system kept pressure to within 1% of the set point, with a chamber leakage rate of 0.009 kPa/h and LP system leakage rate of 0.480 kPa/h. The most tolerant life stage for codling moth under LPLT treatment conditions was 5th instar larvae. Insect mortality increased with increasing LPLT treatment time to more than 98% after 12 days at 10C temperature and 1.33 kPa pressure. The quality of apples was maintained well after 15 days of LPLT treatment, suggesting that LPLT technology has potential as an alternative non-chemical disinfestation treatment method for apples.

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