EFFECTS OF CHITOSAN APPLIED IN PRE-AND POST-HARVEST OF RASPBERRIES IN NATURA

Abstract

The raspberry has been standing out among the berries, due to its high levels of antioxidants and anti-cancer, besides being an attractive fruit. With pleasant flavor it can be consumed fresh, in form of jelly, juice, yogurt, ice-cream and sweets. However, the raspberry has shelf-life limited by many factors, mainly high metabolic rate, loss of firmness, browning and rot. These factors mean that the fruit retains its desirable qualities for sale for only five days. The aim of this work is to assess the effects of chitosan applied in pre and postharvest, on the maintenance of quality attributes of fresh raspberry. Chitosan is a natural product, with low cost, replaceable, biodegradable, with environmental and economic importance, it will be used to defer the senescence of the fruit. The pre-harvest applications will be held from anthesis until the complete formation of the fruits and postharvest applications will be made on the same day of the harvest, in both cases, concentrations will be tested. The analysis carried out will be: weight loss, color, firmness, soluble solids, titratable acid, ascorbic acid content, respiration rate and ethylene production, anthocyanin content and incidence of decay. The statistic will be randomized in a factorial. The factors are the concentration of chitosan and storage periods (days). Four replicates of each treatment will be evaluated, each repetition will be formed around 120g of fruit. The results will be submitted to analysis of variance and means are compared by Tukey test (p <0.05).