Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist, John Stommel, and his research team, at the Genetic Improvement of Fruits and Vegetables Laboratory, and food technologist, Yaguang (Sunny) Luo, of the Food Quality Laboratory, evaluated a diverse collection of peppers for attributes that would prolong their shelf life after being cut.

The team looked at fifty types of peppers available commercially and from the ARS collection – sweet bell, large elongated peppers, jalapeno and Serrano – to find those that could stand up to prolonged cold storage. Fresh-cut sweet bell and elongated peppers exhibited signs of deterioration, such as fluid leakage, after ten-to-fourteen days of storage, whereas jalapeno and serrano peppers didn’t lose fluids until two weeks of storage. Fluid leakage is undesirable as it causes peppers to lose firmness and marketability.

The team found some varieties in each pepper type showed exceptional fluid maintenance beyond fourteen days, meaning the peppers stayed firm and didn’t exhibit tissue breakdown. The results should provide opportunities for plant breeders, via traditional breeding, to incorporate attributes that contribute to fresh-cut quality into elite varieties that will benefit the food industry and consumers, according to Stommel.

Lettuces, the base of salads everywhere, are also targeted for improvement. Luo and plant geneticists, Ryan Hayes and Ivan Simko, from the ARS Crop Improvement and Protection Research Unit in Salinas, California, found several genetic markers that will allow lettuce breeders to confer a longer shelf life to salad-cut lettuce. Lettuce with a gene that results in rapid decay becomes unusable in one-to-two weeks, according to Hayes. In contrast, lettuce with a slow decay gene lasted one month or longer.

The research results from these evaluation studies will facilitate development of improved varieties that greatly benefit growers, packers, processors and consumers.

Source: hpj.com