Box–Behnken design optimization of microwave postharvest treatment on peach quality in cold storage

Abstract

The effect of microwave postharvest treatment on peach cv.“Mashhad SorkhoSefid” quality in cold storage was optimized using Box–Behnken response surface design coupled with numerical optimization technique. The individual and interactive effect of process variables (microwave power (MP), microwave exposure time (MET) and storage time (ST)) on the quality attributes (decay (%), weight loss (%) and firmness (N)) were studied. The results showed that, MET, MP and ST had significant effect on quality parameters of peaches. The experimental data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and second-order polynomial models were developed using multiple regression analysis. The models developed from the experimental design were predictive and good fit with the experimental data with high coefficient of determination (R²) values. An optimization study using desired function methodology was performed and the optimal conditions were found to be MP; 250.44w, MET; 49.47s and ST; 30 days. The corresponding predicted values were 5.18% for decay; 3.35% for weight loss, and 1.25 N for firmness.