Effect of vacuum precooling for flowering Chinese cabbage

A vacuum pre-cooling installation applied in practice was used to study the vacuum pre-cooling process of flowering Chinese cabbage on small batch. An on-line computer measuring system was particularly developed for the test. The variation of mass loss ratio, the temperature of cabbage with precooling time, and the effect of vacuum precooling on its storage quality were investigated. The results showed that the time required for vacuum precooling process on small batch was about 15 minutes, and the mass loss increased with precooling time increase and cabbage temperature decrease during the cooling process, and there were different cooling rates between the stems and leaves of the plants. After the treatment of vacuum precooling, the respiration rate reduced significantly, and the apparent quality declined slowly, with a longer storage life, about 2.3% loss in mass and a bit loss in Vitamin C. Flowering Chinese cabbage was adaptable to the cooling treatment of vacuum precooling.