4. Conclusions
The individual effects of storage temperature, time and freezing method on strawberry characteristics and also their combined effects on ascorbic acid and total anthocyanin contents were statistically significant. But their mutual effects on acidity and pH were not great. Generally, the results of this research showed that most changes in quality of frozen strawberry during storage period centered on ascorbic acid and anthocyanin contents and their decrease at −12 °C was considerable. Frozen strawberries at other storage temperatures (−18, −24 °C) were clearly acceptable to consumers. Therefore, for short time storage of strawberry (three months), −18 °C (for lower expense of energy) was selected as the optimum storage temperature. On the other hand, the results showed that freezing was not effective for a desirable of colour, flavour and wholeness of frozen strawberry. Therefore, the temperature and freezing method for frozen strawberry production should be selected according to the consumer’s interest. Finally, a comparison of some characteristics of Iranian and other strawberry varieties, without any interpretation, is presented in Table 4.