**2.2 Effect of packaging thickness on quality parameters of button mushroom**

#### *2.2.1 Effect of packaging thickness on quality of cv. S 649 of* A. bisporus

Effect of packaging thickness on quality parameters of two button mushroom cv. S 649 and cv. NCS 100 was studied under ambient temperature and refrigerated conditions at Mushroom Research Laboratory of the Department of Plant Pathology, IGKV, Raipur. Transparent polyethylene bags of three thickness (75,100 and

*Postharvest Processing, Value Addition and Marketing of Mushrooms DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101168*


*For color +: absolute white, ++: dull white, +++: dull yellow, ++++: not acceptable.*

*For veil opening – +: intact fruit body, ++: veil opening up to 25%, +++: veil opening up to 50%, ++++: veil opening up to 100%.*

#### **Table 12.**

*Packaging for button mushroom cv. S 649 (washed 0.05% KMS).*

125 gauge) along with one control (100 PE) was used. The fruiting bodies of 25 2 cm or available size fruit bodies of cv. S 649 of *A. bisporus* were first washed for 10 min in washing solution containing 0.05% KMS and stored at ambient temperature and refrigerated temperature conditions for different durations.

The effect of packing thickness on weight loss, veil opening and color of the fruit bodies of cv. S 649 of *A. bisporus* was studied at ambient temperature and the results are presented in **Table 12**. At Ambient temperature, the weight loss in fruiting bodies of strain cv. S 649 of *A. bisporus* varied from 0.20 to 0.86% in varying thickness of polyethylene bags. The weight loss was maximum (0.86%) in 125 gauge thickness while, it was minimum (0.2%) in 100 gauge of thickness after 24 h of storage. The color became dull yellow and veil opening was also noticed in all the treatments after 24 h. The maximum weight loss (98.08%) in the untreated oyster mushroom was also recorded at the 7th day of storage by Das et al. [4]. However, the lowest weight loss (33.62%) was observed in oyster mushrooms when it was wrapped in unperforated plastic bag. Similarly, quality parameters like protein content was found to be higher (28.98%) in oyster mushrooms wrapped with unperforated plastic bag followed by perforated plastic bag (25.00%) at the 5th day of storage.

At refrigerated temperature conditions, maximum weight loss (6.78%) in fruit bodies of strain cv. S 649 was recorded in 75 gauge pp. bags and minimum weight loss (2.72%) was noticed in 125 gauge after 5 days of storage (**Table 13**). In general, weight loss in fruiting bodies of *A. bisporus* was less under refrigerated conditions and more under ambient temperature conditions but the trend here was just reversed which is difficult to explain under same set of conditions. The fruit bodies of *A. bisporus* retained absolute white color up to 24 h in all the treatments. The color was then changed from absolute white to dull white after 48 h in all the treatments except 100 gauge pp. bags. Dull white color was consistently retained up to 5 days in all the treatments. Veil opening was not noticed in any of the treatments up to 24 h except control. Thereafter, veil opening was observed up to 25% in 75 and 125 gauge PP bags whereas 50% veil opening was observed in 100 gauge pp. bags and control up to 5 days of storage. The storage of oyster mushrooms in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) was found by Das et al. [4] to be very effective in reducing moisture loss. It may be mainly due to storing perishables in MAP which regulates gaseous exchange, reduces weight loss, spoilage, and maintains quality of mushrooms during postharvest handling.


#### **Table 13.**

*Packaging for button mushroom (*Agaricus bisporus *cv. S 649) (washed 0.05% KMS).*

*Postharvest Processing, Value Addition and Marketing of Mushrooms DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101168*


*For color: +: absolute white, ++: dull white, +++: dull yellow, ++++: not acceptable.*

*For veil opening: +: intact fruit body, ++: veil opening up to 25%, +++: veil opening up to 50%, ++++: veil opening up to 100%.*

#### **Table 14.**

*Packaging for button mushroom cv. NCS 100 washed with KMS (0.05%).*

### *2.2.2 Effect of packaging thickness on quality strain cv. NCS 100 of* A. bisporus

Effect of packaging thickness on weight loss, color and veil opening of the fruiting bodies of strain cv. NCS 100 of *A. bisporus* was studied at ambient temperature and refrigerated conditions (**Table 14**). At room temperature, maximum weight loss (3.30%) was recorded in 100 gauge pp. bags while, it was minimum (1.91%) in control but the extent of losses in cv. NCS 100 was more compared to cv. S 649. The fruit bodies of *A. bisporus* retained absolute white color up to 24 h in all treatments. Thereafter, they were not acceptable. No veil opening was observed up to 24 h in all the treatments. However, 25% veil opening was noticed in 75 and 100 gauge and it was 50% in 125 gauge and control after 48 h. The quality parameters in cv. NCS 100 were better compared to the cv. S 649 except weight loss of the fruiting bodies.

At refrigerated temperature, maximum weight loss (1.39%) in cv. NCS 100 was recorded in 75 gauge pp. bags and minimum weight loss (1.05%) was noticed in control after 5 days of storage (**Table 15**) which was remarkably less compared to the fruit bodies of cv. S 649. The fruit bodies of cv. NCS 100 of *A. bisporus* retained absolute white color up to 4 days in 125 gauge pp. bags while 2 days in other treatments. Thereafter, the fruit bodies changed to dull white color in 125 gauge on 5th day and other treatments from 3 to 4 days. The color was further changed to dull yellow in other treatments on 5th day. Veil opening was not at all noticed in any of the treatments up to 5 days of storage. In all the quality parameters, the fruiting bodies of cv. NCS 100 was far better than cv. S 649. Thus, it can be very well said that the fruiting bodies of cv. NCS 100 can be very well preserved up to 5 days under refrigerated conditions with least influence on different quality parameters compared to cv. S 649. Longer shelf life of fruiting bodies of cv. S 649 might be due to slow respiration rate under refrigerated conditions noticed during present investigation.
