Understanding the volatile organic compounds of 1‐methylcyclopropylene fumigation and packaging on yellow‐fleshed peach via headspace‐gas chromatography‐ion mobility spectrometry and chemometric analyses

Abstract Headspace‐gas chromatography‐ion mobility spectrometry (HS‐GC‐IMS) and chemometric methods were utilized to analyze changes in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of yellow‐fleshed peach by 1‐methylcyclopropylene (1‐MCP) treatment and modified atmosphere packaging (MAP). Meanwhile, the storage quality of yellow‐fleshed peach at room temperature (25°C) was also studied. Yellow‐fleshed peach was treated by four methods, namely, nanomaterial packaging (NA), 1‐MCP fumigation and nanomaterial packaging (1‐MCP‐NA), polyethylene (PE) packaging, and 1‐MCP fumigation with polyethylene packaging (1‐MCP‐PE). Changes in the decay rate, firmness, browning index, soluble solid content, and titratable acid of the fruit were then measured at room temperature at 1, 4 and 10 days of storage. Thirty‐two VOCs, including terpenoids, alcohols, esters, aldehydes, and ketones, were identified. Seventeen VOCs were found to be significant with predictive variable important in the projection (VIP) > 1 and p < 0.05 by analysis of variance and orthogonal projection to latent structure discriminant analysis (OPLS‐DA). After 10 days of storage, the browning index of 1‐MCP‐NA group was 51.7%, which was lower than the control fruit (PE, 76.7%). Compared with other three treatments, 1‐MCP‐NA showed the better ability to delay and inhibit decreases in ester and aldehyde contents, and the ethanol content was lowest in the samples treated by 1‐MCP‐NA during storage. Differences among treatment groups were distinguished by principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical clustering heat map. The results showed that 1‐MCP‐NA could well maintain the quality and flavor stability of yellow‐fleshed peach, and it had a good application prospect in the postharvest preservation of yellow‐fleshed peach. Practical Application In this study, 1‐methylcyclopropylene (1‐MCP) combined with nanomaterial (NA) packaging (1‐MCP‐NA) proved to have a better fresh preservation effect. 1‐MCP‐NA showed better ability to delay and inhibit decreases in ester and aldehyde contents by HS‐GC‐IMS technique. It provided a new strategy for postharvest storage of yellow‐fleshed peaches.