Effect of Control Atmosphere Storage Model on the Quality of Chili

Chili (Capsicum annum L.) is perishable horticultural commodity with short shelf life. Environmental factors such as: temperature, diseases, and humidity, influence the quality of chili, hence the shelf life becomes shorter. One of the long life-saving technologies for chili freshness is by using a controlled atmosphere storage (CAS) technique. This study aimed to prolong the shelf life of chili up to two weeks by CAS method. CAS is a method of storing agricultural products where the concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and temperature, and the humidity of the storage space are carefully arranged. Storage typically uses low temperatures, and high RH. Storage with this controlled atmosphere has been applied to fresh fruits, vegetables, and dried commodities. For chilies with CAS, a showcase refrigerator was flowed with nitrogen gas (N2) to suppress oxygen gas concentration (O2) in storage space to close to 7%. Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas was added to a concentration of 2.5%. The conditions of oxygen and carbon dioxide gas in the showcase were maintained by continuously flowing N2 gas at a rate of 1 ml / min. The temperature and humidity of storage chambers was maintained at a temperature of 10 - 14 0C and RH in the range 90 - 95%. Observation parameters include, freshness (moisture content, texture, and color), and weight loss. CAS technology was able to maintained freshness of chili for up to 5 weeks with water content characteristics of 82 - 84%, ash content of 0.80 to 0.95%, vitamin C 237.4 - 267.16 mg / 100 g, with the texture easily broken and orange color yellowish, and weight loss reached 12.8%.