Abstract:

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea L.) has been grown in China for almost 1 000 years as a specialty vegetable cropwith high economic value. The flower head is the reproductive organ of broccoli, which maintains vigorous physiology andmetabolism and is easy to blossom and lose the green color and water during postharvest storage at ambient temperature, thuslosing its commodity value in 1–2 days. Recently storage and preservation technologies for broccoli have been developedand practiced satisfactorily by Chinese and foreign researchers. In this paper, the quality characteristics of broccoli duringpostharvest storage are described with emphasis on the recent progress in the development of technologies for storage andpreservation of broccoli. The currently available storage and preservation technologies for broccoli include physical (lowtemperaturestorage, ultraviolet or other irradiation, modified atmosphere storage, heat-shock treatment and electrostaticatomization) and chemical (1-MCP, ethanol, coating and hormone treatments) technologies. Moreover, future developmenttrends are prospected with the aim of providing references for the storage and preservation of broccoli.

Key words: broccoli, storage, preservation, commodity value