Comparison of the quality of highland-grown kimchi cabbage ‘Choon Gwang’ during cold storage after pretreatments

Abstract

Kimchi cabbage ‘Choon Gwang’ cultivar that was grown in highlands in Gangneung was subjected to predrying, room cooling, and forced air cooling, and then packed with/without 0.02 mm HDPE film to investigate the effect of postharvest treatment on quality characteristics during 8 weeks storage at 2oC (RH 90 ± 5%). Weight loss in forced air cooling and room cooling was lower than 3-4% with 0.02 mm HDPE film liner treatment during storage. However, it was only below 10% in room cooling without liner treatment and forced air cooling without liner treatment led to the highest weight loss, above 15%. Conversely, the control had lower weight loss than the others. SSC was 2-4 obrix for all treatments and there was no difference between postharvest treatments and liner treatments. Color index and firmness both showed no differences with/without 0.02 mm HDPE film and postharvest treatments. In sensory evaluation, forced air cooling with liner treatment was effective, with the highest score, especially in appearance and crispness. After 6 weeks, control kimchi cabbage without liner treatment was damaged seriously in appearance and the internal color had changed to brown. Room cooling and predrying with liner treatment changed the start of internal browning to after 8 weeks storage.