Methods
Fresh strawberries were uncapped and sorted to select those full red color, being of uniform size and free of physical damage and fungal infection then washed by tap water. A mount of 1000 g berries were used for each treatment and dipped for 5 min at room temperature ∼25 °C in various concentrations of citric acid and Calcium lactate solutions as follows:
(a)
Citric acid solutions with concentration of 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.6%.
(b)
Calcium lactate solutions with concentration of 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5%.
(c)
0.4% citric acid solution contained either 0.5%, 1.0% or 1.5% Calcium lactate.
(d)
Untreated sample dipped in tap water for 5 min.