Biochemical parameters and shelf life of oyster mushroom affected by pre-treatment and packaging material

After harvest and grading, fresh oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus var. Florida) was subjected to pre-treatment of aqueous solution of 0.050% potassium meta-bisulphite (KMS) for 5 minutes along with control (no dip). The treated air dried samples were subjected to packing 400 g each in polyethylene (150 gauge), jute bag, bubble wrap, non-absorbent cotton bag, corrugated fibre board (CFB), brown paper bag, cotton cloth bag, newspaper bag, punnet along with controls (water dip and no dip/no packing) at ambient (25 ±2oC) and low temperature (4-6±1oC). The physiological loss in weight (% PLW) in all the treatments was recorded during storage (3 days at ambient and 12 days at low temperature) which was found to increase significantly with the advancement of storage period at both the conditions. However, it was found maximum in control (no packing) followed by CFB, newspaper, brown paper and jute bag whereas minimum in polyethylene, punnet and bubble wrap at ambient and low temperature. Shelf-life and quality of oyster mushroom was found good for 2-3 days at ambient and 10-12 days at low temperature in 0.05% KMS compared to control (no dip/no packing). The protein, total sugars and phenols were found to reduce whereas polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity increased significantly at both storage conditions. The study revealed that postharvest shelf-life of oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus var. Florida) can be extended upto 12 days with better quality by pre-treatment with 0.050% KMS followed by packing 400 g in polyethylene, punnet and bubble wrap under low temperature (4- 6±1oC).