POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF TEMPERATURE INCREASE DURING STORAGE UNDER CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERE OF 'GALA' APPLES TREATED WITH 1-MCP

Cold storage can induce the development of chilling injury (characterized by internal browning) in some apple cultivars, even when fruit are kept in temperature above the freezing point. This research evaluated the increment of storage temperature for 'Gala' apples under controlled atmosphere (CA) and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) treatment, as a method to reduce the development of internal browning and energy consumption. Experiments were conducted in 2011, with apples produced in the regions of Fraiburgo (stored in experimental chambers at -0.3 and 1.2 degrees C, and in commercial chambers at 0.7 and 2 degrees C) and Sao Joaquim (stored in commercial chambers at 0.8, 1.4 and 1.9 degrees C). Fruits of all treatments were kept under CA (1.8 +/- 0.2 kPa O-2, and 2.0 +/- 0.2 kPa CO2/RH of 91 +/- 4%), with half of the fruits of each storage temperature being treated with 1-MCP. The fruit were assessed in terms of flesh firmness, and incidence of internal browning, skin cracking and decay. In general, apples stored at higher temperatures had better preservation of flesh firmness, and lower incidence of internal browning, skin cracking and decay, in fruit not treated with 1-MCP. The treatment with 1-MCP delayed flesh firmness loss and reduced the occurrence of internal browning and skin cracking. In Fraiburgo, increasing the AC storage temperature from 0.7 degrees C to 2.0 degrees C resulted in energy saving of 21% for air ventilation and of similar to 50 % for cooling.