Fresh disease-free French beans, procured from local vegetable market, were manually sorted and graded on the basis of shape and size. The graded beans were divided into two lots. One lot was packed in plastic packaging boxes without shrink-wrap and the other lot packed with shrink-wrap. Both lots were stored under refrigerated (5±1°C, RH 90±5%) and ambient (20±2°C, RH 70±5%) conditions upto 21 days to monitor the changes in physicochemical parameters. Shrink-wrapped samples stored under refrigerated conditions had significantly more shelf life and showed minimum loss in physiological weight, ascorbic acid, chlorophyll and total soluble solids as compared to the samples stored under ambient conditions.
French bean, packaging, physico-chemical characteristics, storage
