Control of postharvest disease of strawberries by hot-water treatments and its effects on the quality in storage period

The control efficacy with hot-water treatments to postharvest diseases and its effects on the quality of strawberries were investigated. Based on the preliminary experiments, three treatments were applied to strawberries with hot-water dips(38℃, 15 min; 44℃, 10 min; 48℃, 5 min), afterwards, fruits were stored at (20±１)℃. Infection rate was recorded, and the quality of strawberries were measured every 12 hours. Results show that hot-water treatments can control postharvest diseases of strawberries effectively. Hot-water treatments do not impair the quality parameters of fruit, including weight loss, firmness and titratable acidity. The cell membrane permeability of strawberries treated with hot-water treatments is not higher than the control.