Apple fruit recovery from anoxia under controlled atmosphere storage

This study investigated the dynamic changes in the anaerobic metabolism end products (ethanol, acetaldehyde and ethyl acetate) of different apple cultivars during 84-days of regular air (RA) and controlled atmosphere (CA) storage after 0-, 3-, 7- and 14-days of anoxia. Increasing the length of exposure to anoxia increased the anaerobic metabolites concentrations (AMC) in all cultivars. Fruit could recover from anoxia, and the AMC dissipated after 84-days of storage under both storage systems when the duration of anoxia was <7-days. The rate of metabolite dissipation following 14-days of anoxia differed among cultivars and storage systems. The reduction in AMC was faster under CA than RA-storage for 'Golden Delicious' and 'Jonagold' fruit, while the opposite trend was observed for 'Kanzi'. These results indicate that storage under CA post anoxia maintains better fruit quality during 84-days of storage than RA and effectively reduces the AMC.