Vol 105, No 10 (2016)

The article is devoted to modification of methods of fruits and vegetables products storage using optimization of technologies of the continuous cold chain (CCC), storage in modified atmosphere (MA), ionizing radiation as well. The features of the technology developed consist in introducing to the CCC a stage of preliminary refrigeration of vegetable raw materials at sites of storage and unloading by refrigerated transport as well as in developing optimal conditions of preliminary refrigeration and subsequent chains of CCC in terms of raw materials particularities; also one of the characteristic properties is the choice of an optimal refrigeration system depending on purpose of vegetablefruit raw materials and supposed storage life. The researches showed that the nitrogen refrigeration system was optimal at stages of prerefrigeration, transportation and storage. This system provided more significant lowingdown of metabolic processes, for example, in berries and fruits in comparison with air refrigeration; a salable condition was increased, and mass and spoiling losses were reduced too. To create MA polymeric packages and cryogenic refrigeration agents (liquid nitrogen, carbon dioxide ice) were used. Moreover the application of an additional impact factor that is a treatment of vegetables and fruits before storage by ionizing radiation (gammarays, accelerated electrons) was studied. It allowed inhibiting phytopathogenic microflora, conducting sanitary and hygienic treatment of raw materials and increasing storage life. Radiation treatment gave the possibility to optimize the process of quick freezing of raw materials, to increase microbiological safety and storage life. The works carried out showed that the complex using of all factors cited made it possible to prolong the preservation of products quality and to increase storage life of vegetable and fruit produce.