Effects of the use of chitosan on minimally processed lettuce
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Asociación Iberoamericana de Tecnología Postcosecha, S.C.
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Minimally processed leafy vegetables confer great convenience to consumers in the intake of fresh vegetables as they are already at the point of consumption. Lettuce, amongst all leafy greens is of high importance for human diet and is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world. Even though, lettuces are of quite high perishability. When submitted to minimal processing, the leaves tend to deteriorate more swiftly because of physiological responses to the processing procedures. The search for alternative technologies, which could minimize that effect is very important to the success of that industry as is the need for maintenance of safety of minimally processed vegetables. Biopolymers based on chitosan come up as a possibility to reduce quality losses of fresh vegetables, because of the capability to selectively block gases and deliver the formation of an edible film with bacteriostatic aptitude. In the present work, chitosan concentrations of 0.1%, 0.2% or 0.5% and a 200 ppm hypochloride solution were evaluated for their effects on crisphead and iceberg lettuce shelf life packed in modified atmosphere and stored for up to nine days at 3°C. Leaf color, tissue firmness, fresh weight losses and visual quality were appraised after five, seven or nine days of cold storage. Processing of lettuce rendered decreases on visual quality at cut ends of iceberg lettuce while on whole crisphead no browning was visualized. Chitosan treatments at 0.2% and 0.5% resulted in lower fresh mass losses in comparison to the lower chitosan concentration and the 200 ppm hypochloride treatment. Chitosan treatments did affect acidity, which was slightly lower than in the chlorine treatment.
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