Interaction between maturity stages and temperature on quality of ‘Guarani’ blackberries stored under controlled atmosphere

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The aim of this research was to evaluate the interaction between maturity stages and temperature on fruit quality of ‘Guarani’ blackberries stored under controlled atmosphere (CA). The experiment was conducted in a factorial scheme (2x2), evaluating two ripening stages (E1: red-color and E2: black-color of fruits) and two temperatures (1°C and 5°C). The fruit were stored in CA (10.0kPa O2+15.0kPa CO2) and 98±1% of relative humidity (RH). Results showed that the principal component 1 (PC I) and principal component 2 (PC II) corresponded to 92.84% of the overall variation of the evaluated variables. Harvest should not be performed in the early maturity stage, because ‘Guarani’ blackberries do not develop all quality of consumer. ‘Guarani’ blackberries must be stored at 1°C. The maturity stage showed the major importance in the overall variability of quality parameters when compared to storage temperature.