Effects of Precise Temperature Treatment on the Browning, Physiological and Quality of Fresh Cut Lotus Root

In order to determine the effect of phase temperature storage on the quality of fresh cut lotus root after anti browning agents treatment. Fresh cut lotus roots were treated with anti browning agent (mass fraction of 1.0% anhydrous citric acid+0.1% calcium ascorbate+0.2% L-aspartic acid) and stored at phase temperature (−0.5±0.1) ℃, ice temperature (−0.5±0.3) ℃ and cold storage (4±1) ℃. The effects of different precise temperature on apparent color, browning substrate and related enzyme activities, physiological indices and nutrient quality of fresh cut lotus root were studied. The results showed that precise temperature (phase temperature and ice temperature) could delay the decrease of L^*, the increase of a^* and browning degree, inhibit the decrease of total phenol and the activities of polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase when stored for 6 d, and the phase temperature storage was the best to maintain the original color of fresh-cut lotus root. In the storage process, the precise temperature (phase temperature and ice temperature) treatment could inhibit the increase of respiratory intensity, ethylene production rate, relative conductivity and malondialdehyde content, while delaying the increase of reducing sugar and the decrease of V_C content in fresh cut lotus root. The comprehensive score of SPSS showed that the comprehensive score of phase temperature group was the highest. Principal component analysis showed that the correlation between phase temperature treatment group and polyphenol oxidase, relative conductivity, browning rate, malondialdehyde and a^* was lower. Therefore, phase temperature storage could delay the browning and maintain the quality of fresh cut lotus root.