Shrivelling

Blueberries have a thin and soft skin, which makes them susceptible to water loss. A relative humidity between 90-95% during storage can minimize water loss. Water loss is also a major cause of firmness loss during storage, besides cell-wall degradation related processes. Blueberries are best kept cool, at a high relative humidity, and can also be stored under controlled atmosphere (CA) to extend their shelf-life.Shrivelling can also be apparent on blueberries attacked by “mummy berry” disease, caused by fungi during the growth of the fruit. Those berries have to be pick out of the batch at harvest and have nothing to do with water loss due to low relative humidity.