Objective To reduce the occurrence of chilling injury during postharvest low-temperature storage of green peppers.Methods Green peppers are used as the experimental material to investigate the effects of heat shock (HC) combined with melatonin (MT) treatment on the chilling injury index, relative conductivity, malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) content, antioxidant enzyme activity, and quality parameters during storage at (4±1) ℃ and 85%~90% relative humidity (RH).Results The HC combined with MT treatment delays the onset of chilling injury by 5 days, reduces weight loss by 52.4%, and decreases H₂O₂ content by 71.75%. This treatment effectively inhibits the increase in relative conductivity and the accumulation of MDA. The activities of antioxidant enzymes, including peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and catalase (CAT), increase by 0.45, 0.71, 14.50, and 0.86 U/kg, respectively. Additionally, the composite treatment helps maintain the hardness, total soluble solids (TSS), chlorophyll, and vitamin C content of the green peppers, with significant correlations observed between the various parameters.Conclusion HC combined with MT treatment can effectively reduce the occurrence of chilling injury in green peppers.