Enhancement of senescence in non-climacteric fruit and vegetables by low ethylene levels

When the non-climacteric fruit and vegetables, strawberries, oranges, lettuce, beans, Chinese cabbage, bak choi, choi sum and gal lan were held at ambient temperature (20 degrees C) and low temperature (0 degrees-2.5 degrees C) and ventilated with air containing ethylene over the range 10 to 0.005 mu L/L, the storage life of all produce was found to be linearly extended with a logarithmic reduction in ethylene concentration across the whole concentration range. The ethylene level found to accumulate around produce in the markets was in the range 0.06-1.45 mu L/L suggesting that premature ageing occurs in all non-climacteric produce during normal marketing. There appears to be no benign revel of ethylene so that any reduction of ethylene concentration should help in maintaining quality of all non-climacteric fruit and vegetables.