Ozonated water for the control of banana rot during storage

Abstract

Banana is a crop of great economic and socio-environmental importance, with significant losses occur-ring throughout the production chain, particularly during the post-harvest phase. The use of ozone has emerged as a promising and safe alternative to conventional chemical treatments to minimize these losses. This study aimed to evaluate the kinetic models of ozone reactions in water at different tem-peratures and to determine the effectiveness of immersion in ozonated water for controlling banana rot during storage. Five treatments were tested on the ‘Nanicão’ banana variety: control (no immersion), immersion in water without ozone (two and three cycles), and immersion in ozonated water (two and three cycles). Each cycle lasted 15 min. After treatment, the fruits were stored for 9 days at 25 °C and 75% RH. The results showed that the highest ozone concentration and the longest half-life (117.6 min) were achieved at 15 °C. However, in the presence of bananas, the half-life was drastically reduced to only 0.9 min. No significant effect of ozonated water treatment was observed in controlling rot during storage. It is concluded that, although the ozone half-life is longer at 15 °C, the organic matter present in bananas substantially reduces this time, and immersion in ozonated water was not effective in con-trolling post-harvest rot.