Nutritional and sensory evaluation of ready-to-eat salads during shelf life

The evolution of the antioxidant and sensory properties of six commercially available ready-to-eat salads, rocket, iceberg lettuce, baby lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, curly endive and radicchio, was studied throughout the shelf life. Both the storage under modified atmosphere and in unsealed pouch in a domestic refrigerator were considered and compared. Ascorbic acid, total phenolics content and antioxidant capacity were chosen as the most representative nutritional parameters for this purpose. The data obtained were analyzed by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Radicchio, lamb’s lettuce and rocket showed an initial higher content of the quality parameters studied and demonstrated a better resistance to air exposure than the other salads, being ascorbic acid the most affected parameter. Modified atmosphere packaging demonstrated to be a very useful and reliable technology to extend nutritional and sensory properties during the shelf life period for all the vegetables studied.