Evaluation of green chili stored at the chilling condition: Effects of thermal and ultrasound pretreatments

The research was conducted to evaluate the effect of thermal (Hot Water) and non-thermal (Ultrasound) pretreatments on the changes of physical and nutritional quality attributes, and marketability of the green chili stored at chilling condition. Freshly harvested green chili was pretreated with hot water, ultrasound and Control (Untreated) respectively and the shelf life study was performed. The experiment was designed by Completely Randomized Design with three replications. There was a significant (p < 0.05) differences observed among the treatments. It was observed that physiological weight loss, firmness, and ascorbic acid decreased significantly where pH, total soluble solids and titrable acidity increased over the storage time. The samples treated with hot water revealed the least amount of lightness in the green chili among all the treatments. The highest retention of flavonoids and antioxidant activity was found in the ultrasound treated samples. However, the total phenolic content was found to be sunstentially greater in the untreated samples after storage. The obtained results indicated that average shelf life of green chili was increased up to 16 days at chilling condition compared to untreated sample. Green chili treated with ultrasound showed the highest marketability (82%) at the end of the storage while retaining the quality attributes.