Innovation Paradigm in Food Preservation: Hypobaric Treatment Effectively Extends Shelf-Life and Inhibits Browning of Tricholoma matsutake

The high-value Tricholoma matsutake mushroom suffers from severe postharvest deterioration. This study evaluated the efficacy of hypobaric storage (618 Pa, 2 °C, 92% Relative Humidity (RH)) in extending its shelf-life, focusing on the effects of mushroom size (Grades 1-4) and packaging (with or without air-conditioning bags). Whole mushrooms were stored for 28 days, with quality assessments every 7 days. Key quantitative results demonstrated that hypobaric storage effectively limited weight loss to ≤ 9.8% and maintained the browning index below 40% for most groups after 21 days. Unpackaged mushrooms showed the best performance in mitigating weight loss and browning, indicating a paradigm shift away from reliance on physical packaging under controlled hypobaric environments. Larger mushrooms exhibited higher deterioration rates. Hypobaric storage successfully extended the shelf-life to 21 days. This study validates hypobaric storage as a potent, packaging-optimized strategy for extending the marketable life of high-value T. matsutake, with direct implications for reducing postharvest loss and improving supply chain flexibility.