Quality and consumer acceptability of gooseberry fruits (Ribes uvacrispa) following CA and air storage

For two successive years gooseberries, 'Achilles' were stored at 1degreesC in regular air (control) and under six various CA conditions (%CO2+ %O-2: 6+18; 12+18; 18+18; 12+2; 18+2 and 24+2). Results showed that air storage is not appropriate to handle gooseberries due to a drastic reduction in fruit firmness (25% lower than CA-treatments), darkening of fruit colour, mealy texture, and lower acidity level. Low oxygen storage in combination with high CO2 concentrations (18% or more) of gooseberries also gave bad results, mainly due to the development of off-flavours in fruits. However, results showed that increasing CO2-concentration up to 12% did not induce the development of off-flavour. It seems that the tolerance concentration for gooseberries in respect to CO2 lies between 12-15%, since fruits stored under 18% CO2 combined with 18% O-2 were evaluated to be good fruits, although a slight off-flavour was noticed by panelists. Consequently, the storage of gooseberries 'Achilles' under 12-15% CO2 combined with 18% O-2 for up to seven weeks can be recommended.