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To optimize the treatment conditions for vacuum pre-cooling of baby cabbage and maintain the fresh quality of postharvest baby cabbage, a central composite response surface experiment with two factors and three levels was conducted on the basis of analyzing the effects of different vacuum pre-cooling final temperature (0, 2 and 4 ℃) and different vacuum pre-cooling final pressure (400, 600, 800 and 1000 Pa) on the pre-cooling of postharvest baby cabbage. The results showed that compared with the control without pre-cooling and the pre-cooling group with final temperature of 0 ℃, the pre-cooling with final temperature of 2~4 ℃ at the final pressure of 600 Pa could better maintain the appearance quality of postharvest baby cabbage, inhibit the increase of respiratory rate and malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Under the condition of final temperature of 2 ℃, compared with the control without pre-cooling and the pre-cooling group with a final pressure of 1000 Pa, pre-cooling with final pressures of 400~800 Pa could also better maintain the appearance quality of postharvest baby cabbage, inhibit the increase of respiratory rate and MDA content. Further central composite response surface experiments showed that the optimal conditions for vacuum pre-cooling of postharvest baby vegetables were final temperature of 4.0 ℃ and final pressure of 600 Pa. The vacuum pre-cooling condition not only maintained good quality of postharvest baby vegetable, but also increased the content of soluble protein, total phenols, and ascorbic acid by 18.78%, 18.47% and 33.23%, respectively. Therefore, appropriate vacuum pre-cooling treatment is a highly potential commercialization technology that could effectively maintain the good quality of postharvest baby vegetable during circulation and shelf life.

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This work aimed to study the effect of atomized water spray during vacuum pre-cooling on the quality of pakchoi during low temperature circulation and the shelf life period. Quality and nutritional parameters of pakchoi subjected to vacuum pre-cooling combined with atomized water spray were analyzed during simulated circulation for one day at (4 ± 1) ℃ and the shelf life period of five days at (20 ± 1) ℃. The results showed that the co-treatment not only decreased the pre-cooling time by 68%, but also reduced the water loss rate of pakchoi by 73.29% and the mass loss rate after the shelf life by 15.6% in comparison with vacuum precooling alone. The co-treatment also delayed the yellowing process, and maintained higher contents of titratable acids, soluble sugars, and soluble proteins in pakchoi. In addition, on the last day of shelf life, the contents of nitrite and malondialdehyde in the co-treatment group were decreased by 13.70% and 14.82%, respectively compared with the vacuum precooling group. To sum up, vacuum pre-cooling combined with atomized water spray could not only solve the problem of water loss caused by vacuum pre-cooling and shorten the pre-cooling time, but also delay the yellowing of leaves and maintain better nutritional quality of pakchoi.

Copyright of Shipin Kexue/ Food Science is the property of Food Science Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)