Nutritional Quality and Shelf Life Extension of Capsicum (Capsicum annum) in Expanded Polyethylene Biopolymer.

Freshly harvested capsicum has limited shelf life (5-6 days) under ambient storage conditions. The functional quality of capsicum has been assessed in two sizes (300g±10%) and (900g±10%) of 30µ flex freshTM expanded polyethylene biopolymer pouches at 3 and 10°C and 90-95% RH under modified atmospheric storage. In both small and big size pouches, composition of oxygen and carbon dioxide varied from 18.8-19.9% and 18.8-19.4% and from 2.2-0.7% and 2.0-1.4%, respectively during 28 days of storage at 3°C. Positive and significant correlation was observed between overall acceptability and CO2 composition however, negative correlation was observed with O2 composition. Minimum increase (6.02% and 4.35%) in PLW, minimum decrease in firmness (4.71N-3.50N and 4.71N-2.70N), minimum decrease in chlorophyll (70.3% and 75.5%) and minimum losses (47.6% and 40.3%) of ascorbic acid were obtained after 28 days of storage in small and big size capsicum, respectively at 3°C. The decrease in total phenol and antioxidant activity was 82.4% and 78.6% and 60.1% and 59.4%, respectively after 28 days of the storage at 3°C of small and big size capsicum, respectively. Judges observed most acceptable consistency and OAA score for both sizes of capsicum in pouches up to 21 days of storage at 3°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]