Preservation of postharvest quality of fresh cut cauliflower through simple and easy packaging techniques.

Increasing urbanization, changes in life style and involvement of more women into jobs has forced to find out easy way to get safe and nutritious foods. Fresh cut (FC) vegetables and fruits may satisfy these demands as healthy alternatives. FC processing gives additional value to fresh fruits and vegetables in terms of convenience, fresh, nutritious, and time saving. Therefore, the objective is to investigate the effect of different types of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and vacuum packaging during storage at low temperature on postharvest quality of FC cauliflower. Washed and surface water free cauliflower pieces were packed into different packaging techniques like i. without packaging (control); ii. polypropylene (PP) box iii. Styrofoam tray wrapped with cling film; iv. 1% perforated low density polyethylene (LDPE); v. sealed LDPE; vi. vacuum LDPE. After packaging, all samples were stored at refrigerator (4±1°C and 50±5% RH). The effectiveness of the packaging in extending shelf...