Quality changes of pomegranate arils throughout shelf life affected by deficit irrigation and pre-processing storage

• Deficit irrigation and pomegranate storage affected quality of obtained arils.
• Pomegranates grown under deficit had enhanced contents of most bioactive compounds.
• Long cold storage before processing negatively affected arils quality.

This study investigated the influence of sustained deficit irrigation (SDI, 78% less water supply than the reference evapotranspiration, ET0) compared to a control (100% ET0) on the physicochemical and sensory qualities and health-promoting compounds of pomegranate arils stored for 14 days at 5 °C. Prior to processing, the fruits were stored for 0, 30, 60 or 90 days at 5 °C. The effect of the pre-processing storage duration was also examined. Physicochemical and sensory qualities were kept during the storage period. Arils from SDI fruit had lower punicalagin-α and ellagic acid losses than the control (13% vs 50%). However, the anthocyanin content decreased during the shelf-life (72%) regardless of the treatment. The ascorbic acid slight decreased. Arils from SDI experienced glucose/fructose ratio loss (19%) lower than that of the control (35%). In general, arils from SDI showed better quality and health attributes during the shelf-life than did the control samples.