Quality maintenance of broccoli by the use of 1-MCP treatments

Broccoli's high perishability and its sensitivity to negative quality changes (i.e., mass loss, ethylene induced degreening, abscission of leaves, and florets) generates quality problems during postharvest. Freshly harvested samples were stored at 5 and 21 °C after separately treated for 24 h with 625 ppb 1-methyl-cyclopropene (1-MCP), 24 h with 2 ppm ethylene and 1-MCP followed by ethylene. Quality maintenance effectivity of 1-MCP was investigated during cold and room storage by non-destructive optical methods (chlorophyll fluorescence and DA-index®) and by the evaluation of the visual physiological symptoms. The highly positive effects of 1-MCP treatment combined with cold storage were obviously proven on quality maintenance providing better retention of initial quality related to the initial mature green stage as chlorophyll content related DA-index®; Fm, Fv, Fv/Fm, and Fm/F0 chlorophyll fluorescence values. From the practical point of view, the rapid, and easy-to-use Sintéleia FRM01-F Vis/NIR DA-meter® could be applied relatively easy for the quality measurement of broccoli. The reproducibility of quality determination could be increased by the enhanced number of measuring points or using computer aided imaging methods (i.e., chlorophyll fluorescence imaging, machine vision system) providing global and more reliable information about quality changes.