Quality Deterioration of Chilling Injury Peach Fruits and Some Alleviation Methods

The quality deterioration mechanism of chilling injury, including flesh browning, woolliness and flavor loss, in peach fruits during low temperature storage is reviewed, and some methods alleviating chilling injury are discussed. Enzymatic browning was the main reason of browning of peach flesh during low temperature storage, but the trigger factor, PPO or different kinds of phenol,depend on different variety. Woolliness development is associated with abnormal metabolization of pectic substances, as a result of low PG activity and continuous PE activity, and consequently the increasing levels of insoluble pectins. The sucrose, which is the main sugar in peach fruits, and the titratable acid decrease greatly in chill injured fruits during storage. About a hundred of aroma substances are extracted from peach fruits, when chilling injury happened, the fragrance of peach is almost dismissed. Chilling resistant cultivars and proper maturity selection, pre or postharvest chemical treatment, cold adaptation, heat conditioning, intermittent warming and controlled atmosphere storage could alleviate chilling injury of peach fruit.