Evaluación de la vida útil de la Fragaria xananassa Duch (Fresa) por efecto de la aplicación de cloruro de calcio y un recubrimiento comestible

Abstract

At Animal Sciences faculty of the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, was evaluated the effect of calcium chloride Immersion in solutions (0.5, 1,5%) and the application of an edible covering (composed by jelly 3%, glycerin 0,75%, CMC 0,75%, distilled water 94,5%) in front of a witness in the post-harvest conservation of the albion variety strawberry, with three repetitions per treatment, under a completely random design with factorial arrangement, the results were submitted to the variance analysis and the average separation according Tukey (p<0,05). Establishing that the interaction between factors didn´t affects statistically the physical-chemical and microbiological characteristics of the strawberry, however the edible covering factor showed statistical differences in some variables, being the covering treatment with immersion in 1,5% of calcium chloride that the best characteristics presents with less weight loss (5,07%), a firmness of (10,32N), higher microbial efficiency for aerobic and mesophyll with a maximum value of (4,5 x 103UFC/g); for mold and yeast (2,5 x 103UFC/g). All of these treatments with edible covering presented 5 days of useful life. In order to the calcium chloride factor showed meaningful differences just on the firmness in the last research day. The pH, acidity, soluble solids and total coliforms were not affected by the factors under study. The results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of the edible covering in the prolongation of useful life of strawberry maintaining their physical-chemical characteristics and microbiological.