The minimally processed products offer several benefits for consumers, such as the reduction of the time for food preparation, the purchase of healthy products with excellent quality and smaller space for their storage. The objective of this work was to evaluate which package (polyethylene terephtalate or expanded polyestiren tray covered with polyvinyl chloride) would be better for the storage of minimally processed melon stored at 4ºC and 10ºC. The fruits had passed for the minimum process, which consisted in: reception, selection, washing with tap water and with 200 mg.L-1 sodium hypochlorote solution, cooling at 10ºC/24h, peeling and manual cut (slice), immersion bath with 40 mg.L-1 sodium hypochlorote solution for 30 s, packing and storage. Analyses of O2 and CO2 concentrations, firmness, pH, total acidity, total solid soluble, total and reducing sugars, and sensorial analysis had been made at 0, 3, 5, 7 and 10 days of storage. The results show that there were significant differences during the storage period for O2 and CO2 concentration, firmness, pH, total and reducing sugars. The characteristics of the fruits stored in polyethylene terephtalate packages at 4ºC remained more steady when compared with the other treatments. In the sensorial analysis it had significant difference between the first day and the others, showing that the minimally processed melon decreases its sensorial quality with the time.
melon; fresh-cut; package; storage; sensorial analysis
