Assessment of Cumulative Effect of Modified Atmosphere Packaging, Packaging Material and Chemical Treatments on Post-Harvest Life of Button Mushroom (Agaricus Bisporus)

Abstract

Due to increasing numbers of vegans and vegetarians globally all around the world is shooting up demands for food items derived from plant sources like, mushrooms, which not only very delicious in taste but also good source of protein and other minerals. The post-harvest shelf life of button mushroom is nearly 1-3 days at ambient temperature and 8 10 days under low temperature storage. For improving shelf life of button mushroom, we have combined Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) with different chemical treatments and packaging material which leads to successful increment in its shelf life up to 12-14 days. Button mushrooms were treated with CaCl2, citric acid, and sorbitol and packed under three MAP air composition (MAP1: 6%O2, 12%CO2; MAP2: 12%O2, 6%CO2; MAP3: 20.95% O2, 0.04% CO2) then packed under two different Packaging Materials PM1 (Polyamide 20μm-Polyethylene 70μm) and PM2: (Polyamide 40μm-Polyethylene 120μm) and stored at 8oC. Packaging material with higher thickness showed beneficial effects on ascorbic acid content, protein content, electrolyte leakage rate as it had less gas permeability and less water vapour transmission rate of 1.5 g m-2 day-1. Packaging button mushrooms in thin films causes outer air to accumulate inside packed samples and causes its fast browning and degradation.