QUALITY INDICATORS FOR MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING (MAP) STORAGE OF HIGH-QUALITY EUROPEAN PLUM (PRUNUS DOMESTICA L.) CULTIVARS

The use of quality indicators is crucial in selling plums in more distant markets and the evaluation of freshness through multiple index is fundamental to evaluate the goodness of the storage technique. In this study we evaluated the quality of two european plums cultivars ('Ramasin' and 'Ariddo di Core' with purple and yellow flesh colour respectively) after modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) storage, through the selection of the most appropriate indicators. The headspace gas composition, the flesh fruit firmness (FFF), the soluble solid content (SSC), the titratable acidity (TA), the colour and the chlorophyll content of plums wrapped with 5 different films (F1, F2, F3, F4 and F5) were evaluated for up 21 days of storage ( at 1 +/- 1 degrees C and 90-95% relative humidity). For both cultivars, the multilayered films (F1 and F2, 90 and 65 mu m respectively) offered better effectiveness over other films. The total chlorophyll concentration, showing a good correlation with the colorimetric parameters of luminance (L*) and chroma (respectively R-2=0.92 and R-2=0.96) confirmed, in the case of the Ariddo di Core cultivar, the results obtained by monitoring other parameters thus highlighting the usefulness of integrating multiple indexes in evaluating the performance of the storage methods used.