PRE-HARVEST NITROGEN APPLICATION AFFECTED THE OVERALL QUALITY OF FRESH-CUT GLOBE ARTICHOKE

In Southern Europe, globe artichoke production is an important component of regional economic stability and social development. Hence, globe artichoke growers still adopt massive amount of nitrogen fertilizers to promote plant growth and yield, although effects on product quality are contradictory. In particular, in literature no systemic studies are available on the variation of the overall quality of fresh-cut globe artichoke heads in relation to nitrogen fertilization. This is relevant since fresh-cut processing could ease globe artichoke consumption on a wider scale, but may also result in a more perishable product. Here we examined the effects of three nitrogen levels (0–200 and 400 kg N ha-1, referred to as N0, N100 and N200, respectively) on physical, physiological, chemical, sensory and microbiological traits of ‘Violetto di Provenza’ cultivar, grown in a typical Italian environment (Catania Plain) for this crop and then processed. About 100 heads for each nitrogen level were harvested during spring 2014 at marketable stage and then cut in slices, immersed in an ascorbic and citric acids solution, packaged in polypropylene trays and sealed into bags made up by semipermeable film (OTR 3000 cc/m2/24h). The packages per each nitrogen level and sampling time were stored under refrigerated conditions until analyses.