Berries are characterized by a shorter shelf life than other fruits, because of higher susceptibility to microbial spoilage, increased respiration rate and ethylene production, which is stimulated by wounding of the tissue. In addition, they may pose a food safety risk to the consumers because they are consumed raw. Shelf-life is usually defined as the time during which a food product remain safe, comply with label declaration of nutritional data and retain desired sensory, chemical, physical and microbiological characteristics when stored under the recommended conditions. Therefore, to assess shelf-life objective indexes related to nutrition, microbiological or physicochemical characteristics of food have been typically measured. The most used method to keep berries fresh after harvest and to increase their shelf life is to keep them in a refrigerated state. Most berries can last several days when kept at around 1 ºC, but this method is not always optimal or cost effective, so other innovative methods have developed in time to extend even more the berries shelf life. Some new ways to extend the shelf-life are keeping the berries in modified atmosphere packaging, using antimicrobial edible coatings and films, using high voltage electric fields (HVEF), using UV light, irradiation and ozone, and dipping the berries in different solutions that contain opposite charged polyelectrolyte. Between those mentioned earlier, the development of antimicrobial edible coatings is the most studied method for improving the shelf life of different berries or fruits. In conclusion, finding more techniques to increase and improve berries shelf-life is a must for the producers, suppliers and customers
NEW TECHNIQUES USED TO IMPROVE BERRIES SHELF LIFE (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300056668_NEW_TECHNIQUES_USED_TO_IMPROVE_BERRIES_SHELF_LIFE [accessed Apr 25, 2016].