Mushrooms from the control-PP trays had higher
incidence of discolouration of cap with extensively exposed gills at
end of storage (Fig. 9). Hence, water vapour saturated headspace
with 100% RH has detrimental impact on visual quality of
mushrooms. Villaescusa and Gil (2003) used sorbitol and silica
gel as moisture absorbers to maintain the RH range inside modified
atmosphere packaged P. ostreatus. The authors reported that the
mushrooms packaged with moisture absorbers maintained the
best visual appearance, due to the stable in-package RH (90
96%).
Thus, maintaining optimum RH is critical in achieving desired
product shelf life. However, this depends on the produce
transpiration, rate of water uptake and water holding capacity
of the absorber and the water vapour transmission via the
packaging
film (Villaescusa and Gil, 2003; Mahajan et al., 2008b; Bi
et al., 2014). Further research is needed to explore the possibilities
for humidity-regulating trays with different percent of salts and its
application for other fresh produce of low TR such as tomatoes,
strawberry and pomegranate arils.