Fresh Insight: Enhancing Verdant Leafy Vegetable’s Shelf Life Via Modified Atmosphere Packing and Storage

Abstract

This study aimed to enhance the durability of selected green leafy vegetables, including Lettuce and Palak, by manipulating influential factors such as storage conditions (Ambient (35±5°C) and Refrigerated (5±5°C)), packing substrate (Low-density polyethylene and High-density polyethylene covers), and gas composition using modified atmosphere packaging. Factorial completely randomized design (FCRD) was employed, incorporating a total of 12 treatments for each crop. The evaluation primarily relied on calculating physiological weight loss. Lettuce showed optimal results with treatment T5 (0.38%) exhibiting superior performance, followed by T6 (0.45%) and T3 (0.58%) under ambient conditions. Similarly, for palak, T5 (0.18%) outperformed T3 (0.19%) and T2 (0.37%). Thus, it is advisable to adopt T5 (R1G3M1) as the preferred treatment with T3 (R1G2M1) as a viable alternative for ambient storage conditions. Refrigerated lettuce performed optimally with T11 (0.54%) leading, followed by T7 (0.56%) and T9 (0.69%). Similarly, palak exhibited superior results with T9 (0.61%) in the fore, succeeded by T11 (0.77%) and T7 (0.97%). Notably, produce stored under ambient conditions had a relatively short shelf life of approximately 5 days, while refrigeration extended it to 15 days, after which a decline in quality was observed across all treatments. Therefore, refrigerated produce has an extended shelf life, with T9 (R2G2M1) followed by T7 (R2G1M1) yielding highly favorable outcomes.