APPLICATION OF AN ENZYME KINETICS BASED RESPIRATION MODEL TO CLOSED SYSTEM EXPERIMENTS FOR FRESH PRODUCE

An approach was developed to use a respiration model, based on enzyme kinetics principle, along with the closed system method for generating respiration rates of fresh produce as a function of O-2 and CO2 concentrations. To verify this approach, experiments were conducted to measure the respiration rates of cut broccoli contained in closed jars at 0, 7, 13 and 24C. The respiration model was found to fit the experimental data very well, and the model parameters were estimated using multiple linear regression analysis. Another experiment was also conducted with a permeable package containing cut broccoli at 13C, and the experimental respiration rates were found to compare well with those predicted using the model parameter values estimated above.