Abstract
Nitrogen modified atmosphere was an effective way to control pest infestation in grains. In this study, the quality changes of rice during nitrogen modified atmosphere packaging storage (N2-MAPS) were monitored. An un-targeted metabolomics method was used to detect the rice metabolites and explore the mechanism of N2-MAPS for delaying rice deterioration. In this study, two rice species were studied under N2-MAPS and conventional storage at 30 °C for 150 days. The quality changes of rice during storage were monitored. The results showed that N2-MAPS could retard the increase of fatty acid value and amylose content, and defer the decrease of enzyme activities. And N2-MAPS had no significant influence on texture characteristics of rice. The metabolomics results suggested some metabolites and pathways were affected by N2-MAPS and revealed that N2-MAPS could protect rice cells from oxidative damage, maintain cell integrity and stability by regulating the metabolism to delay the rice deterioration.