STUDY OF WATER TRANSPIRATION FEATURES OF SWEET PEPPER USING A THERMAL IMAGING SYSTEM AND NON-DESTRUCTIVE QUALITY MONITORING DURING POST-HARVEST STORAGE

Sweet pepper is susceptible to relatively fast quality changes and its quality is influenced strongly by water or mass losses mainly due to transpiration processes during post-harvest. The aim of this study was the investigation of different storage conditions' effect on quality maintenance of pepper using surface thermal imaging, measurement of overall static stiffness and low-mass impact stiffness as non-destructive methods. Post-harvest keeping quality of pepper samples increased and unfavourable quality degradation was prevented under low, non-chilling temperatures together with the use of LDPE-packaging film resulted in high quality and fresh appearance after more than two weeks long storage period.