Abstract:
There is an increasing niche market demand for tree-ripe mango fruit due to their pleasant level of sweetness and flavour than artificially ripened fruits. However, tree-ripe mango fruits normally have a short storage life therefore, some time these fruits can not be reached to the ultimate consumers and heavy losses occurred. To avoid this problem growers try to harvest the mangoes at early stage of maturity which directly affect the physico-chemical constituents of fruit. Research was carried out to investigate the Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage feasibility and optimum storage conditions for tree-ripe cv. Chaunsa mangoes in order to extend their shelf life without compromising their quality. Tree ripe mangoes were stored in 1, 3, or 5% O₂ combined with 3, 6, and 9 % CO₂ at 10°C for two weeks and compared with those stored in 21% O₂ and 0% CO₂ as control. It was found that the rate of fruit weight loss decreased with an increase of CO₂ in the storage atmosphere. Higher acidity was found in the fruit which were stored at lower concentration of O₂ and higher concentration of CO₂ which might be due to the accumulation of higher concentration of CO₂ in the fruit tissues. CA storage showed better retention of Ascorbic acid but did not show any systematic trend regarding citric acid, tartaric acid and malic acid. Fruits stored under controlled atmosphere showed better retention of freshness, colour, firmness, total soluble solids and flavour in comparison with the fruit stored in air (control). Mangoes stored in 3% O₂ with 6% CO₂ were highly acceptable by the panellists due to their better sweetness, flavour as compared to others.
