**2.10 UV irradiation**

UV-C irradiation plays an important role in reducing fruit decay and delaying ripening of fruits. It has been used extensively before storage at relatively higher doses due to their higher impact and use. Strawberry fruits were subjected to different repeated doses of UV-C irradiation for quality maintenance during storage. UV-C irradiation reduced decay, weight loss, and softening in strawberries. Twostep or multistep UV treatments showed higher quality retention and reduced calyx browning more efficiently. UV-C treatments could be more effective to enhance the postharvest life of strawberry during storage conditions [76]. Also, studies showed that UV-C radiation increased in total phenolic, volatile contents, proanthocyanidins, anthocyanins, and esters in external tissues. However, aroma character compounds decreased with the application of UV-C treatments [77].

Strawberry fruits were subjected to blue light to improve quality, antioxidant capacity, and enzyme activities stored at 5°C. Blue light illumination

increased ascorbic acid, total sugar, titratable acidity, total phenolic, and DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazy) radical-scavenging activity in strawberries during the course of storage. In addition, higher activities of reactive oxygen species like APX, SOD, and CAT maintained lower amounts of superoxide anion (SO2), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and malondialdehyde (MDA). Thus, for maintenance of quality attributes and improvement in nutritional quality of strawberry fruit, exposure to blue light illumination might be affective due to the enhancement of their antioxidant systems and free radical-scavenging abilities [78]. Strawberry fruits were exposed to the lower dose gamma irradiation at 1 kGy and different amounts of EMAP (active equilibrium-modified atmosphere packaging) at the rate of EMAP1: CO2 10%: O2 5%; N2 85% and EMAP2: CO2 5%: O2 10%; N2 85%, and stored at 4°C. EMAP1 packages showed good texture, appearance, and firmness than EMAP2 during storage time. It has been noted that the exposure to lower irradiation dose in combination with EMAP1 maintained external appearance, less fungus attack, and enables high-quality strawberry with improved shelf life [79].
