Sprouting Suppression and Quality Attributes of Potato Tubers as Affected by Post-Harvest UV-C Treatment under Cold Storage

. Potato (solanumtuberosum, L.) is one of the most important vegetable crops in Egypt,it is considered as a source of national income since the potato crop is exported abroad because it has high quality specification.As a result of its cheap price and different prepared ways, potato is the most consuming crop by domestic consumer.So, the need to maintain the potato quality and preserve the crop without losses, providing good storage conditions after harvest is an important process for inhibiting sprouting, reduce the loss of weight and keeping the quality.The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of different doses of ultraviolet light (0, 1.42, 2.14 and 2.85 J/cm2) and different storage conditions (ambient air 45 ? 2oC with 50-60% RH, two cold dark storages, at 8oC?1with 75-82% RH and13oC?1 with 85-92% RH) on inhibition the sprouting of small tubers (60-90g) and big tubers (120-220g) after four months of storage.The analysis of variance(ANOVA) with three replicates (P < 0.05) based on Randomized Complete Block Design(RCBD) was conducted for the statistical analysis. It was concluded that increasing irradiation doses and decreasing storage temperature is good combination for sprouting suppression, reducing weight loss percentage, reducing the increment of soluble solids content, increasing firmness and remaining on the dry matter content almost constant. Only the tubers of non-irradiated treatment under ambient air storage showed percentage of damage. While,10 min irradiation treatment was very low to be effective in sprouting suppression or maintain other quality attributes at all storage temperatures. Exposure of 15 min UV-C is recommended as post-harvest treatment when small tubers are stored at 8oC. Storing tubers at 13oC after high irradiation doses showed very low sprouting weight for small and big tubers. - See more at