Use of non‐chlorine sanitizer and low‐cost packages enhancing microbial safety and quality of commercial cold‐stored carrots

This study was designed to evaluate the use of non-chlorine sanitizer in enhancing quality, microbial safety, and increased shelf life of carrots under various low-cost packaging and storage at commercial cold storage. The study results revealed that irrespective of packaging conditions, none of the washed carrots stored in a commercial cold storage for six months was found cross the upper threshold microbial limit (7.0 log CFU/g) compared to non-washed sample and thus acceptable in microbial quality. Among the packaging and washing treatment, waste shell powder (WSP) washed carrots kept in a plastic crate or CFB carton packaged showed better microbial quality, lower decay and weight loss, higher firmness, and acceptable color values than chlorine washed and non-washed carrots under cold storage condition for 6 months. Although, the overall nutritional quality of 6-months stored carrots decreased significantly, but WSP washed carrots showed relatively equal or higher phytochemicals than that of chlorine water-washed carrots. Practical applications The postharvest losses of horticultural products justify the use of preservation techniques and processing not only adds value to the products, but also makes the products more convenient to the consumers. In this study we find, simple changes in packaging (from Jute sack package to plastic crate packages) resulted in better quality carrots (less damage/decay) than that of existing storage practices. Therefore, this study results demonstrated that washing matured raw carrots with non-chlorine sanitizer and packaged in the plastic crate was able to provide safe and quality carrots after holding 6 months at cold storage.