Determination Maturity Stages of Iceberg Lettuce Based on Sensory Quality, Color Values and Physiochemical Properties during Cold Storage

Abstract

Tolcha Techane Alemu and Vu Thi Kim Oanh

Determining the best maturity stage for vegetables are a challenging practice due to the high variability found in crops. Maturity is the stage of growth that leads to a consumer’s attainment of a specific goal. Identifying the correct stage of maturity and harvesting at the appropriate time are critical pre-harvest criteria for getting the most out of the covered net houses. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of maturity stage of iceberg lettuce based on sensory quality, color values and other physicochemical properties. Maturity stage was used as factors with four levels (52, 55, 58 and 61) based on day after planting (DAP). As the plants reached an older stage, the leaf color values in terms of L*, a* and b* were decreased. In addition to that the result revealed that, samples harvested at 58 DAP was preserved color values, sensory quality and other physicochemical properties. The experiment concluded that, harvesting iceberg lettuce at optimal maturity stage very important to preserve different quality parameters and samples harvested at 58 DAP suggested for long term storage and also used for marketing purposes.

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