Fruits storage last longer in fridge why the rate of respiration of decrease
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UNDERSTANDING FOOD INGREDIENTS
Respiration of fruits and vegetables
September 18, 20168 min read
After harvest, fruits and vegetables continue to ‘live’. The respiration of fruits and vegetables keeps on going until all suplies have been depleted. For keeping fruits and vegetables fresh it is essential that you try to keep respiration going on for long as possible. That why, in this post we’ll be focussing on the respiration of fruits and vegetables. We’ll discuss how it can be controlled and influenced to store your fruits and vegetables for as long as possible.
Respiration sets free energy which can be used by the fruits and vegetables for their internal processes. Controlling respiration is essential for properly keeping your produce. As long as the respiration process can continu, the fruits and vegetables can be kept well. Since the produce isn’t connected to roots or other parts of the plant anymore, it will not get any new nutrients, it will have to live of what it’s got. So once it’s all finished, the fruits and vegetables will deteriorate.
Respiration of fruits and vegetables = chemistry
The respiration process is nothing more than a very common chemical reaction. This chemical reaction is not unique for fruits and vegetables, it takes place in all plants and animals. In respiration glucose (C6H12O2) is transformed into carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) using oxygen (O2). This reaction releases energy as well which can be used for all sorts of processes in the plant. The reaction can be represented like this:
C6H12O2 + 6 O2 –> 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + energy
Glucose is a carbohydrate and is often stored in a plant as starch. Once all glucose has been depleted no energy is being formed anymore to sustain the fruit or vegetable and decay sets in.
Respiration rates differ per product
The respiration rate of a product determine how fast the chemical process occurs. The higher the rate the faster glucose will be transformed and the faster all supplies will be depleted. Therefore, when it comes to storage of fruits and vegetables we want to keep the respiration rates as low as possible without killing the produce.
We will zoom into various ways to do that in a little while. However, we first have to look at all the different types of fruits and vegetables and their influence on the respiration rate. Each variety has a different respiration rate. The respiration rate of a tomato will be very different of that of a carrot which again will be different of that of a strawberry.
It is a lot harder to keep products with a very high respiration rates. They simply run out of energy more quickly. Below you can find some examples of very slow up to very fast respiring products (USDA):
Very slow: nuts & dates
Slow: apple, citrus, grape, onion, potato
Moderate: banana, cherry, pear, fig, lettuce, tomato
Fast: strawberry, cauliflower, avocado
Very fast: artichoke, Brussel sprouts
Extremely fast: broccoli, mushroom, spinach, sweet corn
brussel sprouts
Brussel sprouts have a very high respiration rate.
Definitions
The definitions used above use the respiration rates (mg CO2 kg-1 hour-1) at 5°C. The categories are as follows: very slow (<5), slow (5-10), moderate (10-20), fast (20-40), very fast (40-60), extremely fast (>60).
Units
The unit of respiration rate is: mg CO2 kg-1 hour-1. The rate describes the amount of carbon dioxide produced per kg of produce in 1 hour. As you can see in the equation above, carbon dioxide is formed during respiration. If you know this amount you can also calculate how much glucose has been converted.