Study on Correlation between Storage Temperatures and Qualities of Vacuum-Packaged Fresh Chestnuts

The purpose of this paper is to study the changes of sensory qualities of fresh chestnuts stored at different temperatures after vacuum packaging, aiming to provide some technical references for commercialization and circulation of fresh chestnuts. The cold sterilized fresh chestnuts were packed in vacuum and separately stored at 4 ℃,20 ℃ and 30 ℃. The sensory qualities, water contents, total starch contents, total soluble sugar contents, total protein contents, ash contents and VC contents were regularly determined. The mathematical model of quality changes and storage time was simulated and analyzed by variance. The results showed that during storage at different temperatures, the moisture contents of fresh chestnuts were decreased with time, and was significantly positively correlated with sensory scores（P＜0.01）. The storage time was negatively correlated with sensory scores（P＜0.01）. The total protein contents had no evident changes. According to the fitted regression equation of fresh chestnut qualities indices and shelf lives at different storage temperatures, the edible qualities of fresh chestnuts packed in vacuum could be maintained for about 27.62 d at 4 ℃, 12.41 d at 20 ℃, and 7.03 d at 30 ℃. The verification test results were close to the predicted results, and the equation could be used to predict the retention time of fresh chestnuts at different temperatures.