This paper focuses on the application of ozone treatment in watermelon fresh-cut processing. Our experimental results showed that ozone blowing into the package containing watermelon fresh-cut improved significantly the hygienic quality of the final product. With the ozone concentration in the blowing flux (30o C, 1atm), the suitable time for watermelon fresh-cut treatment was 3 minutes. Some packaging materials were then tested for prolonging the fresh-cut shelf-life and polyethylene was selected. From the microbiological point of view, the shelf-life of watermelon fresh-cut stored at 4o C was 7 days. | TAÏP CHÍ PHAÙT TRIEÅN KH&CN, TAÄP 11, SOÁ 09 - 2008 STUDY ON PROLONGATION OF WATERMELON FRESH-CUT SHELFLIFE BY OZONE TREATMENT Le Van Viet Man, Tran Quoc Huy University of Technology, VNU-HCM (Manuscript Received on June 10th, 2007, Manuscript Revised May 29th, 2008) ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on the application of ozone treatment in watermelon fresh-cut processing. Our experimental results showed that ozone blowing into the package containing watermelon fresh-cut improved significantly the hygienic quality of the final product. With the ozone concentration in the blowing flux (30oC, 1atm), the suitable time for watermelon fresh-cut treatment was 3 minutes. Some packaging materials were then tested for prolonging the fresh-cut shelf-life and polyethylene was selected. From the microbiological point of view, the shelf-life of watermelon fresh-cut stored at 4oC was 7 days. Keywords: fresh-cut, ozone treatment, polyethylene, shelf-life, watermelo. 1. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, minimal processing for “fresh produce” has been rapidly developed on the world. In fruit and vegetable industry, minimally processed fruits are products that maintain their attributes and quality similar to those of fresh products [6]. In tropical countries, fruit fresh-cut has been a highly consumed product. In this paper, ozone was used in watermelon fresh-cut processing as an antimicrobial agent. Firstly, the time of ozone blowing into the package containing watermelon fresh-cut was examined. Then some packaging materials were tested for prolonging the fresh-cut shelf-life. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials: Watermelon: a variety of Citrullus lanatus - supplied by a farm in Long An – was used in this study. Ozone: ozone flux was produced by an ozone generator. This equipment was supplied by Yili Machinery Co., Ltd. (China). Polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene (PE) were originated from a Taiwan company, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – from a Japanese company. Technological schema of .
