X-ray irradiation preserves winter dates

Recently, the research group of Associate Professor Kou Liping's research group of fruit and vegetable storage and processing team of the College of Food Science and Engineering of Northwest A & F University and Yangling Nuclear Sheng Irradiation Technology Co.
, Ltd.
have made new progress
in the project "research and development of electron beam irradiation preservation winter jujube technology".
The research results have been published
in international food journals such as Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies.

The project was set up
to solve the bottleneck problems of easy microbial contamination and deterioration of Dali Dong jujube during storage, easy to lose water and shrink, soft wine, resulting in deterioration of quality, shortening of supply cycle and narrow sales surface.
Compared with many existing storage and preservation methods, X-ray has high power, short wavelength and strong penetration, which can effectively inhibit the growth of microorganisms, while minimizing the loss of nutrients, and the dose below 10 kGre will not produce toxicological harm, which is a potential non-thermal preservation technology
.
Based on this project, X-ray irradiation is used to preserve winter dates, and the mechanism of X-ray irradiation preservation is explored
.

Studies have shown that 0.
3 kgori X-rays have potential application value
in delaying the reddening of winter dates.
The researchers said that 0.
3 kGori X-rays effectively reduced polygalactonidase (PG), cellulase and β-glucosidase (β-glu) activity while significantly inhibiting the growth of 8.
20% of fungi and 29.
12% of aerobic bacteria, so that pectin decomposition was inhibited
.
At the same time, it can maintain the peel structure and stomatal morphology of jujube fruit peel intact, keep the stratum corneum dense and smooth, the outer epidermal cells are neatly arranged and uniform in size, the subepidermal structure is obvious, the cell membrane permeability and malondialdehyde content are reduced, and the water loss and softening situation can be alleviated
.
The results demonstrate the potential
of X-rays in the preservation of winter dates.

The study can increase the value and consumption of winter dates, and promote its application in various winter jujube producing areas across the country, which can not only increase the income of enterprises due to the storage of winter dates, but also enrich the supply of fruits in the market, alleviate the contradiction between production and marketing of winter dates, and play an important role
in promoting local agricultural economic growth and realizing sustainable agricultural development.

China Food News (October 12, 2022, Version 04)

(Editor: Gao Na).