The effects of hot water, hot water + UV-C and UV-Capplications on modified atmosphere conditions in starksgold cherry

In thisstudy, effects of post-harvest UV-C, Hot Waterand UV-C + Hot Watertreatments on quality attributes and especially on phenolics of 'starksgold' cherries grown under Mersin Tarsus Mountains conditions throughout the cold storage were investigated. For this purpose, before to store, cherry fruits were subjected to UV-C treatmentsfor 5 minutes and Hot Water treatments at 50°C for 1 minute. The fruits harvested at full-ripe period were then stored in modified atmosphere packages (MAP) (Xtend®) for 20 days at 0°C temperature and 90±5% relative humidity. Throughout the storage period, weight loss, skin color, suspended solids content, titratable acidity, total phenolics and antioxidant analyses were performed in every 4thday of storage (0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20thdays).Effects of experimental treatments on phenolics were investigated in detail. Present findings revealed that UV-C+Hot Water treatments without any chemicals beter preserved the quality attributes and significantly restricted the losses in protocatechic acid, chlorogenic acid and q-coumaric acid contents. Keywords: Hot water, MAP, Storage, Sweetcherry, UV-C.