Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

Author(s):
Shourathunnisa Begum, KT Ramappa, Udaykumar Nidoni, Sharanagouda Hiregoudar and G Ramesh

Abstract:
The present investigation was undertaken in the Department of Processing and Food Engineering, College of Agricultural Engineering, Raichur during 2018-19 to study the effect of packaging materials and storage conditions on shelf-life of fenugreek leafy vegetable. The treatment combination comprised of three storage conditions such as ambient storage (AS), zero energy cool chamber (ZECC) and cold storage (CS) and three different packaging materials such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) with three replication. The freshly harvested fenugreek samples were packaged in three different packaging materials (without vents) and stored in three different conditions. The observations on quality attributes and microbial count were recorded at regular interval up to the end of storage period. It was noticed that the quality parameters were well maintained in cold storage and zero energy cool chamber. It was found, that the least changes in the colour value (L*, a* and b*) was noticed in S₃P₃ (47.72, -12.68 and 17.93) at the end of storage life. There was maximum physiological loss in weight (4.04%) for S₂P₃ on 10^th day in ZECC and in CS (4.23%) on 16^th day of storage period. The minimum decay (16.47%) was recorded for S₃P₃ on 16^th day of storage period. Better retention of total chlorophyll content (from 286.47 to 194.85 mg/100 g) and ascorbic acid (from 88.52 to 52.89 mg/100 g) was recorded for the treatment S₃P₃ on 16^th day of storage. microbial populations in ZECC (S₂) storage condition also increased from initial to 37.67, 39.67, 39.33 and 39.12 after 2, 6, 8 and 10 days of storage, respectively and found within the permissible (5×10⁶) the same results were obtained for CS (S₃) with an increased value from initial value 28.33, 36.33, 34.33 and 31.67 after 2, 12, 14 and 16 days of storage, respectively.