Physico-chemical and enzymatic factors affecting fruit stability

10 Physico-chemical and enzymatic factors affecting fruit stability 

Factors such as light, pH, relative humidity, gas composition and enzymatic systems are involved in the colour deterioration of fruits and vegetables. As an example, it has been found that ethylene produced during cutting in minimally fresh processed spinach notably accelerates the loss of chlorophylls, and damage is proportional to the ethylene level reached (Abe and Watada 1991). 

In most cases an optimisation of harvesting and postharvest treatments would be needed for each kind of fruit and variety, and this can only be carried out after a full characterisation of the pigment composition. A deep knowledge of the pigment metabolism, including biosynthetic capacity, implicated enzymes and 

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