Sebzelerde Hasat Sonrası Üşeme Zararı

Low temperature storage reduces the metabolic activity and prolongs the shelf-life of vegetable crops. However, because of chilling injury it is not possible to decrease the storage temperature below 10 oC in some vegetables such as snap bean, cucumber, eggplant, melon, okra, pepper, squash, tomato, potato and watermelon. Chilling injury is an irreversible damage occurs below critical temperatures in cells, tissues and organs. Critical temperature is about 10 oC in most tropical and temperate vegetables. There are several hypothesis on the mechanism of chilling injury, However the exact reason which causes chilling injury in vegetables is not certain yet. Pitting, large sunken areas, discoloration, water soaked appearance, pulp and seed browning, tissue breakdown, and increased susceptibility to decay are common visual symptoms of CI. The symptoms develop rapidly when product is transferred into higher temperatures. Alternating storage temperatures controlled atmosphere storage, packaging, postharvest heat and chemical treatments and genetic modification are the methods to prevent or reduce CI symptoms in vegetables. The best method to prevent CI is to avoid temperature decrease below critical level during storage.