Impact of ozone on quality of strawberry during cold storage

The postharvest physiology of strawberry was investigated to study the effects of ozone on weight loss rate, ascorbic acid, respiration rate, peroxdase (POD) activity, catalase (CAT) activity, and malondialdehyde (MDA) content during cold storage. The strawberries were treated with ozone of 0 ppm (control), 2 ppm, 4 ppm, and 8 ppm, respectively. The results indicated that the treatment of 4 ppm ozone could inhibited the decrease of ascorbic acid, POD activity, and CAT activity, and reduced weight loss rate and MDA content. The treatment delayed the senescence of strawberry, with a significantly lower respiration rate. Thus, the best concentration of ozone was 4 ppm, and ozone treatment could be a good candidate for maintaining postharvest quality of strawberry and provide a longer storage life.