Abstract

The quality and shelf-life of ready-to-use lettuces depend on genotypic traits of raw material and on several aspects from preharvest to postharvest processing. In general, preharvest factors should be aimed to optimize their impact on postharvest quality, in order to limit the use of chemical preservative during processing. In this study the influence of soil and soilless growing systems on quality and microbial traits of three multi-leaf lettuce cultivars (two green Eztoril and Ezabel, and one red Ezra) was evaluated at harvest and after 7 and 13 days of storage at 8 °C. At harvest, Ezra showed a respiration activity and a total phenol content respectively 2-fold and 25% significantly higher than the green cultivars. Soil lettuces resulted more stressed than those grown in soilless, as indicated by their initial content in antioxidants. As for nitrate content, soilless grown lettuces at harvest showed an average concentration higher than soil-grown ones (838 vs 432 mg/kg fw), although values are generally lower than limits imposed by the EU Regulation (No.1258/2011). The initial microbial load was significantly higher in soil lettuce compared with lettuce cultivated in soilless condition. Moreover the latter resulted cleaner than soil grown samples, with evident beneficial effect regarding the potential application of mild washing during processing in view of extended cold storage. During storage, soilless lettuces showed no ammonium accumulation, differently from those cultivated in soil. In addition, lettuce cultivars grown in soilless condition showed unchanged content in the antioxidant activity and total phenols, and lower microbial counts than soil lettuces. Results of the present study showed that soilless growing system can positively affect qualitative and microbiological parameter of lettuces studied, and it can be a valid agricultural system in order to obtain high quality multi-leaf lettuces for ready-to-use industry.

Autore Pugliese

• Pace Bernardo , Baruzzi Federico , Cefola Maria , Gonnella Maria

Tutti gli autori

• B. Pace; I. Capotorto; M. Gonnella; F. Baruzzi; M. Cefola

Titolo volume/Rivista

Advances in horticultural science

Anno di pubblicazione

2018

ISSN

1592-1573

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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