THE MECHANISM CONTROLLING MAINTENANCE OF PRODUCE INITIAL WATER CONTENT DURING LONG-TERM STORAGE: EXEMPLIFICATION BY USING GARLIC BULB

Most fruits and vegetables demand low temperature and high humidity, around 0°C and more than 80% RH, when they are being stored. On the other hand, optimum relative humidity for some root and fruit vegetables is around 60-70% RH since they suffer from microbial spoilage when they are stored under higher humidity condition. Water content after long-term storage often does not show the difference between the initial value and the final value although there is much weight loss of the produce. In this study, we proposed a model that illustrates the mass balance of the water within the produce to understand the maintenance of the initial water content during storage. The model was applied to garlic storage and its potentiality was validated through storage tests under different temperature and gas composition.