Influence of 1-MCP treatments on eating quality and consumer preferences of 'Qinmei' kiwifruit during shelf life

In recent years, some Chinese distributors said that 1-MCP treated kiwifruit were difficult to ripen and that the eating quality was reduced. This paper addresses whether these problems exists or not, determines the quality parameters affecting consumer preferences and reevaluates the necessity of 1-MCP application for storage of kiwifruit. 'Qinmei' kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa C.F. Liang et A.R. Ferguson) harvested at three ripening stages were treated with 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 or 1.5 mu LL-1 1-MCP before cold storage. The results showed that for the fruit harvested at two higher ripening stages, 1-MCP treatment reduced decay incidence after 12 days shelf life following 90 days cold storage, and the percentage of decayed fruit for 1-MCP treatment was much lower than control after 150 days storage as well as on subsequent shelf life no matter what the ripening stage was. After decayed fruit was removed from all the treatments, fruit treated with 1-MCP displayed a lower consumer acceptance, especially at higher concentrations, compared with control during shelf life. This indicated 1-MCP treated fruit presented lower eating quality compared to control fruit during the shelf life. Excessive sourness, but not firmness or soluble solids was the main factor decreasing the taste of kiwifruit treated with 1-MCP. Fruit softening was delayed by all dosages of 1-MCP. However, the higher firmness showed no significant negative effect on eating quality. 1-MCP had no influence on soluble solids content after the cold storage or during shelf life. Our study demonstrated that utilization of lower concentration of 1-MCP up to 1 mu LL-1 for 'Qinmei' kiwifruit with intended storage of 150 days was necessary, but not for 90 days storage of fruit harvested at low ripening stage (harvested at 6.4 % SSC).