Active-Modified Atmosphere Packaging of Ready-to-Eat Pomegranate ( Punica granatum L.) Arils at Ambient Temperature for Extending Shelf-Life

Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) has been widely applied to extend the shelf-life of fresh-cut produces, such as ready-to-eat pomegranate arils. However, many studies used MAP to extend the shelf-life of arils at 3, 4, and 15 °C. The evidence suggested that MAP can extend the shelf-life of arils at an ambient temperature. Therefore, we attempted to extend the shelf-life of ready-to-eat pomegranate arils using active MAP at an ambient temperature and evaluated its chemical, quality, and microbial properties. Samples were flushed with specific gas compositions of oxygen (O 2 ) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) at an ambient temperature and 60 ± 2% relative humidity (RH). The findings demonstrated that active MAP increased the titratable acidity (0.32–3.64%), anthocyanins (0.27–0.42 g/L), reducing sugars (1.06–10.13%), and total soluble solids (15–19 °Brix), while it decreased the pH (3.20–3.54) and hardness (4.60–9.40 N) with a microbial load of ≤5 log CFU/g at ambient temperature for 5 days. Ultimately, active MAP could be an effective technique to be used in ready-to-eat produce industries and has the potential to guarantee a longer shelf-life at ambient temperature without the use of refrigerator facilities.