Current Trends in Natural Sciences Vol. 9, Issue 18, pp. 47-51, 2020 https://doi.org/10.47068/ctns.2020.v9i18.007 Current Trends in Natural Sciences (on-line) Current Trends in Natural Sciences (CD-Rom) ISSN: 2284-953X ISSN: 2284-9521 ISSN-L: 2284-9521 ISSN-L: 2284-9521 http://www.natsci.upit.ro *Corresponding author, E-mail address: drd.rozsa.sandor@gmail.com, rozsa.sandor@usamvcluj.ro 47 RESEARCH ON MAINTAINING THE QUALITY OF TWO HYBRIDS OF BELL PEPPERS AFTER HARVEST Sándor Rózsa 1,* , Dănuț-Nicolae Măniuțiu 1 , Gheorghe Poșta 2 , Tincuța-Marta Gocan 1 , Vasile Lazăr 1 1 University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania 2 Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine "King Mihai I of Romania" Timi șoara, Romania Abstract The importance of bell peppers and its share in the culture has increased greatly in recent years, due to the intensification of demand for this product on the market. In the technology of capitalization of fresh bell peppers, the achievement of an appropriate technological flow requires many specific technical and organizational specifications. At the same time, it is necessary to maintain the quality of the peppers during different transport periods, in normal or refrigerated conditions. In the technological flow of capitalizing on bell peppers, the transit period can be extended depending on the hybrid by 7-10 days in uncooled spaces and with 20-32 days in cooled spaces, by covering the products packed in boxes with polyethylene foil to achieve a relative humidity of almost 98%. Covering the boxes with polyethylene foil reduces weight loss during transport with 4.57% in uncooled spaces and with 1.29% in refrigerated spaces. In 30 days of storage, the content of vitamin C in the Belladonna F1 hybrid decreased by 24 mg and with 21 mg in the Blondy F1 hybrid. Keywords: bell peppers, polyethylene foil, quality, technological flow. 1. INTRODUCTION Among the cultivated vegetable species, pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) occupies an important place, having many uses (Lownds et al., 1994). Pepper fruits can be eaten fresh, which is of particular importance, due to the fact that vitamins are used entirely by the human body (Soltani et al., 2016). Pepper fruits are used in the preparation of a very wide range of dishes and are suitable for processing in the canning industry (Maria et al., 2010). The chemical composition of pepper fruits is very complex (Yekula et al., 2013). The content of vitamin C depends on the degree of maturity, the size of the fruit and their conditioning immediately after harvest (Ilic et al., 2012). The importance of bell peppers and its share in the culture has increased greatly in recent years, due to the intensification of demand for this product on the market (Antoniali et al., 2007; Bayoumi, 2008). The biological peculiarities of the plant give the peppers a pronounced seasonality, which the production and capitalization technologies have the task of reducing in order to ensure their presence in the assortment of vegetables throughout the year (Rao et al., 2011). In the technology of capitalization of fresh bell peppers, the achievement of an appropriate technological flow requires many specific technical and organizational specifications (Chitravathi et al., 2015).