Journal of Chemical Engineering & Process Technology
Open Access

Abstract

Effects of Controlled Atmosphere Storage and Temperature on Quality Attributes of Mango

Hailu Z

This study was conducted to analyze the effects of Controlled Atmosphere Storage (CAS) and low temperatures on quality attributes of cv. Keitt mango. Mango is one of the choicest fruits in the world and popular due to its delicious taste, pleasant aroma and nutritional value. To date, only 3% of the total world production is being exported due to the perishable nature of the product, lack of proper storage and other postharvest related diseases. Post-harvest loss of mango in Ethiopia is estimated to be between 25-40% and would occur during handling, transportation and storage. Storage loss could arise owing to atmospheric conditions and temperature. CAS is agricultural technologies which monitor and adjust constantly the level of CO2 and O2 within storage to reduce the rate of physiological and biochemical changes, ethylene sensitivity and incidence of decay development of mangoes and also inhibit pathogen growth. Thus, this study was under taken to determine the optimum storage conditions of Ethiopian mango in order to reduce considerable postharvest mango losses. In this work, randomized block design experimental was employed for optimization of the influencing factors mainly CAS and temperatures. Accordingly, experiments were carried out at constant storage temperature of 7�C with different atmospheric conditions of A (10% CO2+6% O2+84% N2), B (8% CO2+6% O2+86% N2), C (5% CO2+5% O2+90% N2) and Control (0.03% CO2+21% O2+79% N2). Besides, fruits also stored at different constant temperatures of 7�C, 10�C, 13�C and control (21-24�C) respectively. The result obtained showed that effect of CAS on quality attributes (weight loss and firmness) of cv. Keitt mango significantly improved the storage life as compared to that stored at ambient atmosphere with list significant difference values being at 0.05=3.12 and 1.708 respectively. In addition, the effect of temperature on Total soluble solid, Titrable acidity, pH, weight loss, firmness and skin color was found to be significant in prolonging the storage life of the fruit with List significant difference values of 0.05 (0.317, 6.58, 3.46, 4.148, 6.50 and 2.41). The study revealed that the fruit stored at 7�C under 10% CO2+6% O2 storage condition, as confirmed by sensory analysis, was given better preference to extend cv. Keitt mango up to 6 weeks. On the other hand, the fruits stored at 13�C with no CAS conditions showed better storage time of up to 21 days without chilling injury effect. Finally, it can be conclude that application of CAS technology can significantly enhance the quality and storage life thereby minimizing post-harvest losses of mango fruit.