Abstract:The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of light-emitting diode (LED) irradiation treatment on the storage quality of fresh-cut strawberries. In this experiment,‘Benihope’ strawberry was used as the experimental material, the fresh-cut ‘Benihope’ strawberries were stored at (4.0±1.0) ℃ and a relative humidity of 85%~90% and treated with blue LED light (light intensity: 36 μmol/(m2.s); time: 36 h), which served as the experimental group, and the fresh-cut fruits stored at dark were used as the control group. Regular assessments were conducted to measure various quality indicators of freshcut strawberries, such as firmness, colour, content of soluble solids, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid content, soluble protein content, soluble sugar content, total phenolic content, and content of anthocyanins, and the activities of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD). The results showed that the blue light treatment effectively delayed the decline in firmness and contents of soluble solids, titratable acid, soluble protein, soluble sugar and ascorbic acid in fresh-cut strawberries. In the control group, no significant change was observed in anthocyanin content, whilst a trend of initial increase following deccrease was observed in its total phenol content and POD and PPO activities. Notably, the blue light treatment increased significantly the anthocyanin and total phenolic contents and POD activity while inhibiting the PPO activity. At the end of storage, the blue light treatment of fresh-cut strawberries made the total phenolic, anthocyanin, and ascorbic acid contents becoming1.39-, 1.54-, and 1.24-fold, respectively, those of the control strawberries. Thus, blue LED light treatment could effectively maintain the quality of fresh-cut strawberries, which provides a certain theoretical basis for the preservation of fresh-cut strawberries.
