Qualidade pós-colheita de tubérculos de batata ‘Ágata’ embalados armazenados em diferentes condições

The adequate storage of raw materials is fundamental to obtain a quality final product. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different plastic packages on the maintenance of post-harvest quality of ‘Agata’ potato tubers stored under refrigeration and room temperature. Two experiments were conducted, both with a completely randomized design, arranged in a 3 x 4 factorial scheme (three types of packages – unpacked, with polyvinyl chloride film – PVC (21 cm x 40 cm and 12 μm thick) and with plastic bag (30 cm x 40 cm and 30 μm thick) and four evaluation times), with three replicates of one tuber each. In one experiment the samples were maintained under ambient conditions (25 ± 2°C and 60% ± 5% RH), with evaluations performed at 0, 7, 14 and 21 days, and another under refrigeration (8 ± 2oC 75% ± 2% RH) and 0, 25, 50 and 75 days. The evaluated characteristics were: firmness, pH, soluble solids, total titratable acidity, vitamin C and the appearance of shoots. Tubers can only be stored under ambient conditions for seven days, and during this period the PVC packaging is the most suitable for storage. Tuber firmness was reduced and the vitamin C content of the last evaluation was higher than the initial content in both storage conditions. The refrigerated storage extended the shelf life of tubers for up to 50 days, period during which the PVC and plastic bags did not influence the conservation of the ‘Agata’ potato tubers.