Role and effectiveness of 1-MCP (Fysium®) in maintaining commercial quality of apples

Nowadays, markets require the highest possible levels of apple quality. The aesthetic and the shelf-life properties of apples determine their economic value. Apples must be firm, crisp, with a proper size, gloss and with enticing colours. These features must be maintained by apples after several weeks of shelf-life or after long transports under non-optimal storage conditions. Huge amounts of products are wasted every year because they don’t match these required characteristics. This research aims to investigate a way to reduce these losses using 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) conveyed to apples in the form of Fysium®, a commercial product developed by Janssen PMP®. This product is applied in very little amounts (at ppm level) after apple harvest and before their storage. It allows to reduce apples production of ethylene thus implying a slowdown or, sometimes even a stop in the post-harvest ripening process and, therefore a prolongation of postharvest life. The orchards selected for this analysis were in the North-Eastern part of Italy, mainly in the region Trentino-Alto Adige. The data were collected in 2021. The parameters considered for this analysis were cultivars, time of storage after the treatment, apples starch, apples ethylene content and apples firmness. Two main results have been analysed and discussed: 1) Fysium® seems to have worked properly in all the varieties of apples. 2) Fysium® effectiveness seems to be related to the initial conditions (temperature of apples, temperature of storage rooms) and to the ripening state of apples at the time of the treatment. It was ascertained that the storage techniques, based mainly on different atmosphere composition, when applied after the treatment contribute in a complementary way to the final quality of apples. This research is a first step in a possible wider study to determine how it is achievable to foresee the final state of apple quality as a function of the maturity level reached at harvest, and of the storage room environmental parameters at the time of the treatment.