Preharvest ultraviolet-C irradiation: Influence on physicochemical parameters associated with strawberry fruit quality

Postharvest ultraviolet-C (UV-C) hormesis has been shown effective for the treatment of the edible part of several horticultural crops such as strawberry fruit; however, there is a lack of information on its potential preharvest impact. In the present study three strawberry cultivars (Fragaria × ananassa Duch. 'Albion', 'Charlotte' and 'Seascape') were exposed to UV-C during two growth seasons for a period of three weeks. Treatment begins when the first flowers were wide open and fruits at commercial maturity were harvested within one week after UV treatment. The physicochemical quality parameters of the fruits harvested from the treated plants were compared to those of the fruits of the untreated control plants. Preharvest UV-C treatment tended to increase fruit firmness in all cultivars with significant differences declared only for 'Albion' and 'Seascape' in season 2. Fruits from treated plants were generally redder but a significant difference was observed only for cultivar 'Charlotte' in the second growing season. Other color attributes were not affected by UV-C, neither were organic acids, simple sugars, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA) and pH, although in most cases slight decreases were noticed. Cultivar and growing season were the factors that mostly influenced on the parameters under study. The present study show that cumulative preharvest UV-C treatment of 3.6 kJ m−2 did not adversely affected important strawberry quality parameters.