Strawberry Storage Cold Room

Strawberries are harvested after they are fully ripe. For this reason, faster decay and deterioration occurs. During the packaging of strawberries, the separation of the rotten and the healthy ones poses an important problem. Timely and accurate cooling process is very important in decay times.

The recommended storage condition is 0 °C and 90-95% relative humidity. However, storage times are between 5-7 days. To prolong the life of the product, it should be cooled to 0 °C immediately after collection and stored at 0 °C. The temperature of the product can reach up to 30 °C where it is harvested, and waiting for 4 hours at 0 °C may result in 40% wastage. Pre-cooling with forced air flow is recommended in the palletized state. With this method, the temperature of the strawberry can be reduced to 1 °C in 1 hour, and 1 °C is reached in 9 hours in cooling with normal air flow. After a few days in storage, the strawberry loses its bright color, starts to shrivel and deteriorates in taste. These formations can be kept under pressure by storage temperature, but they develop faster than in freshly picked strawberries as the product leaves the storage. Strawberry spoilage is most commonly gray mold rot, rhizopus rot, and skin rot. To keep their growth to a minimum, pre-cooling should be done quickly at temperatures of 5 °C or lower, and this temperature should be maintained during transportation, storage and marketing.

Fresh

Temperature : 0 °C

Relative humidity or packaging: 90-95%

Post-harvest life: 5-10 days in normal air, 10-21 days in normal air + 15% carbon dioxide

Freezing point : -0.8 °C

Frozen Temperature : -18 °C

Relative humidity or packaging : Vapor-tight packaging

Post-harvest life: 14-18 months