while those of the ethanol treatment group remained constantly low. The a* values for untreated control were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than those for ethanol treated samples on all evaluation days after day 0. The b* color values for both ethanol-treated stem discs and controls increased during storage. However, the b* values for treated samples did not increase as rapidly or to as great extent as those for controls, indicating that the ethanol treatment retarded the yellowing of the lettuce stem discs. As shown in Fig. 1D, pink and brown dots appeared on the cut surface of controls at day 5. However, the cut surface of ethanol