2019 ASHS Annual Conference

The industrial volume of Korean Blueberry has sharply increased to 3,000ha in 2018 from 20ha in 2006. This is largely attributed to the convenience to consume blueberries as well as high nutritional value. However, the market supply is intensively concentrated during June to July and the shelf life of fresh blueberries is too short, so the quality control of blueberry became more important.

This experiment was conducted to extend the shelf life of fresh blueberries. The varieties used in this experiment were Brightwell and Tipblue. Blueberries (100g) were stored in a plastic pack with a commercialized ‘Ethylene-Absorbent Pad (EA)’ and ‘Sulfur Dioxide Generating Pad (SD)’ each. Fruits packs were wraped with polyethylene film and stored at 1^oC. Then, the fruit quality such as fruit weight loss, firmness, soluble solid content and decay was monitored by every two weeks

12 weeks after storage, the fruit decay of Brightwell and Tipblue was 0%, 0% in SD treatment but 25.0%, 9.7% in EA compared with 26.3%, 11.3% in control. The total non-commodity rate of Brightwell and Tipblue was 60.3% and 26.0% in EA treatment but 0%, 1.0% in SD treatment.

The fruit weight loss of Brightwell and Tipblue was 0.6 to 0.8% and 2.0 to 2.3% in EA and SD at 12 weeks after storage. The fruit firmness of Brightwell was 0.39kgf in SD and 0.27kgf in EA but the fruit firmness of Tipblue decreased slightly but there was no difference between treatments. Soluble solid content also decreased (In Brightwell, 13.4°Bx at the beginning of storage to 12.5° Bx at 12 weeks after storage; In Tipblue, 14.3°bx at the beginning of storage to 12.7° Bx at 12 weeks after storage) but there was no difference between EA and SD.

Key words : Blueberry, Sulfur Dioxide Generating Pad , Storage, Decay