3.7. Fungal decay
The postharvest shelf life of blueberries is also limited by fungal decay. According to Day, Skura, and Powrie (1990),
the storage life of these fruits in the transport chain is restricted primarily by fungal spoilage. Fungi such as Colletotrichum
acutatum, A. alternata and B. cinerea are the main culprits (Smith, Magee, & Gupton, 1996). In this study, berry decay was only caused by A. alternata and this was mainly located at the stem scar. Table 2 shows the incidence of decay (%) of blueberries packaged in the different containers (PLA and clamshell) and stored at 10 and 23 C. Package type affected decay incidence after 15 days of storage at 10 C. No differences (p 6 0.05) were observed at 23 C during storage. Berries packaged into clamshell containers showed lower fungal development than those into PLA containers (5% vs. 11%). This may be because the blueberries in the clamshell containers had loss more moisture which decreased fungal development after 12 days of storage. In addition, it is well known that high internal relative humidity atmospheres increase microbial growth and this was the case in the PLA containers. Temperature control was more effective than package type in decreasing fungal decay during storage (Table 2). Postharvest shelf life of blueberries packaged in either container and stored at 23 C was not longer