Low Pressure Storage for Horticultural Crops1

Abstract

Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage has proven notably successful for storing some apple cultivars and has been adopted on a wide commercial scale. However, CA storage of other crops has had variable success (39). Since the inception of CA storage, the only major innovation in storage practices with a potential broadscale application is the use of sub-atmospheric pressures (hypo-baric storage, low pressure storage, LPS). The inventor has coined the name hypobaric for this method (20). We prefer the term low pressure storage because it is less “medicinal” in implication and is readily shortened to LPS. Although LPS has been discussed in textbooks (1, 21, 71, 75), commercial use is still restricted to a few mobile vans. In the belief that LPS is technically possible on a large scale and may offer advantages over current methods, this review undertakes to examine the potential application of LPS to selected horticultural crops.