Quality of strawberries after storage is reduced by a short delay to cooling

The effects of delay to cooling and storage were evaluated on postharvest quality and decay of fresh harvested strawberries. 'Chandler' strawberries were forced-air precooled after delays of 0 or 6 hours at 30°C to study the effect of delaying precooling on decay, and physical and chemical characteristics of strawberries. For decay experiments the fruits were previously inoculated with Botrytis cinerea and Rhizopus stolonifer. Fruit pulp temperature was equilibrated to 30°C prior to the start of each experiment to minimize water loss differences between treatments. Evaluations were made after storage for one week at 1°C plus one day at 20°C. Delaying the start of precooling resulted in greater water loss than in control fruits. Tissue firmness values were also lower in fruit from the delay treatment. Fruits were darker, less bright and apparently less red. No significant differences in pH were observed, but titratable acidity was slightly lower with the delay to cooling. Delaying precooling also caused increased losses of ascorbic acid, soluble solids, fructose, glucose and sucrose compared to controls, and also resulted in more decayed fruits. This illustrates the importance of rapid precooling and subsequent storage at low temperature for maintenance of an acceptable appearance, texture, flavor and nutritive value of strawberries