Incidencia del ambiente y la revitalización en las pérdidas poscosecha de hortalizas de hoja, fruto y raíz.

Fresh vegetables are perishable products, with significant loss and deterioration of quality during marketing. Low temperature and high relative humidity slow down physiological processes. The objective of this work was to evaluate the impact of environmental conditions and revitalization on post-harvest losses of leaf, fruit, and root vegetables. It was carried out in the College of Agricultural Sciences UNR (Rosario National University), in Zavalla, Santa Fe, Argentina. Two factors with 2 levels each were evaluated: 1) storage environments: 3,4 °C cold store at 97 % RH ;and natural environment (13 °C average temperature, 81 % RH; and 2) revitalization (immersion in chlorinated water): with and without revitalization. Four repetitions were performed with samples from different wooden boxes. The samples were: 5 plants for each type of lettuce (butterhead, crisp and iceberg), 1 celery plant, 6 round squash fruits and 3 carrot roots. The variables measured were: weight loss by discarding, water loss and total losses, in%. A model of repeated measures in time with the MIXED procedure of SAS was used for the analysis. Cold store reduced the percentage of loss in all variables and vegetables evaluated. Revitalization reduced water loss in most species in both environments; for vegetables stored in the natural environment, the percentage of loss by discarding was significantly lower for revitalized vegetables than for non-revitalized ones (10 % and 17 % respectively). Iceberg lettuce had a higher % of discarding with revitalization, since it favored the presence of physiological alterations. The techniques proposed are useful for reducing post-harvest losses in most species.