ABSTRACT
Fruits and vegetables are important parts of the human diet as they are the major sources of essential nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, complex carbohydrates, and antioxidants (Lee et al., 1995). They also contain an immense variety of biologically active secondary metabolites that reduce the risks of cancer and heart/circulation diseases (Johnson et al., 1994). Consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is on the rise because of the increasing awareness of their nutritional importance. Fruits and vegetables are highly perishable, as they continue their metabolic processes after harvest and must be stored to maintain the fresh quality as long as possible. The most important factor in maintaining quality and extending the shelf life of fruit and vegetables after harvest is temperature. Most of the physical, biochemical, microbiological, and physiological reactions contributing to deterioration of produce quality are largely dependent on temperature. Metabolic processes including respiration, transpiration, and ripening are particularly temperature dependent (Ryall and Lipton, 1979; De Wel et al., 1982; Mitchell, 1992). Conventional cold storage can be optimized by modi“cation of the atmosphere surrounding the product to create a new atmosphere that usually has a lower level of O2 and a higher level of CO2. At these levels of O2 and CO2, the respiration rate of most commodities will decrease and their shelf life will be extended (Geeson, 1990). Creating and maintaining the optimal atmosphere to achieve this bene“t is based on packaging with plastic “lms known as modi“ed atmosphere packaging (MAP; Marcellin, 1974; Lee et al., 1995, 1996).
