potential as the treatment consistently extended
postharvest life 50% over fruit held in air. at
either 20 or 5°C. Use of NO would require airtight
fumigation chambers to preclude the entry
of oxygen during treatment. However, such an
NO treatment would allow strawberries to be
marketed without modification of current handling
and marketing procedures. Evaluation of
NO on a range of strawberry cultivars from different
growing regions and seasons is warranted
to determine the consistency and magnitude of the
beneficial effect. Commercial trials are also
needed to develop fumigation units that are reliable,
easy to operate and cost effective. Fumigation
for longer than 2 h may be worth
investigating but a long fumigation period would
not seem to be desirable from a commercial perspective
given the relatively short postharvest life
of strawberries.