High CO2 short-term treatment to preserve quality and volatiles profile of fresh-cut artichokes during cold storage

Artichoke is classified as highly perishable product due to its high respiration rate that limits its shelf-life. Moreover, processing artichokes as a fresh-cut produce require washing, trimming and cutting operations that increase respiration rate, accelerate senescence and enzymatic browning, causing undesirable changes in the sensory, nutritional and health promoting properties. The use of post-harvest technologies can be a valid approach to preserve the quality and extend the shelf-life of this perishable product. Hence, the aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of a short-term treatment (48 h at 0°C) with different concentrations of high CO2 (CO2-10%, CO2-20%, CO2-30%, CO2-40% or AIR) in modified atmosphere (MA) on quality parameters and on Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) profile of fresh-cut artichokes. Samples were kept at 0°C for 48 h applying MA, then stored at 5°C in air and analyzed after 1, 4 and 7 days. The effect of different short-term CO2 treatments, storage time and their interaction on quality parameters was tested by a multifactor ANOVA and LSD Multiple Range Test. High CO2 short-term treatment until 30% reduced respiration rate, browning index, preserving the total phenol content and antioxidant activity at the level of untreated samples. The application of CO2 concentration around 40% might cause a fermentative metabolism. VOC profile study was performed by HS-SPME/GC-MS analysis, identifying 99 compounds. The VOC peak areas were used for Principal Component Analysis, showing that CO2-10% was the best treatment to preserve the volatile profile of the fresh samples, characterized by terpenes, alcohols, esters, aldehydes, hydrocarbon and heterocyclic compounds, while CO2-40% resulted associated to fermentative compounds mainly esters. In conclusion, the exposure of fresh-cut artichokes for 48 h at 0 °C at CO2-10% might be a promising postharvest treatment useful to preserve their quality and volatile profile during storage at 5 °C for 7 days.