Influence of expanded polyethylene biopolymer packaging on shelf life of capsicum

Abstract

Capsicum is one of the most important vegetable crops of solanaceous family and grown across the country. Freshly harvested capsicum has very short shelf life (5-6 days) under ambient storage condition. The physicochemical characteristics and composition variations of capsicum has been assessed in two sizes (300g±10%) and (900g±10%) of 30μ flex freshTM expanded polyethylene biopolymer pouches at 3 ˚C, 10 ˚C and 90-95% RH under modified atmospheric storage. Minimum increase (6.02% and 4.35%) in PLW, minimum decrease in chlorophyll (70.3% and 75.5%) and minimum losses (47.6% and 40.3%) of ascorbic acid were obtained after 28 DOS, respectively at 3 ˚C. It was observed most acceptable consistency for both sizes of capsicum in pouches up to 21 DOS at 3 ˚C.