Temperature preconditioning technique increases chilling tolerance in papaya
2021
Nurul Khdijah Rosly | Nur Azlin Razali | Farah ‘Aqila Hamzah | Mohamad Fikkri Abdul Hamid
The most effective postharvest tool to extend storage life and maintain the quality of fruits is low-temperature storage. However, storing fruits below the optimum level caused a chilling injury. Papaya is prone to chilling injuries characterised by scald, pitting of the skin, hard lumps in the pulp around the vascular bundles, abnormal ripening with blotchy discolouration and water soaking of the flesh, all these increased susceptibility to decay. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of temperature preconditioning treatment in developing chilling tolerance of papaya cv. ‘Sekaki’ during storage at suboptimum temperature. The study was carried out by manipulating temperature preconditioning and storage at sub-optimum temperature (7°C). No chilling injury symptom was observed in samples stored at a sub-optimum temperature of 7 °C throughout the storage period. Quality parameters like pH, total titratable acidity (TTA), total soluble solids (TSS) and ascorbic acid content showed no significant differences between treatments. Higher firmness value was recorded in fruits subjected to temperature conditioning, associated with delayed ripening. The temperature preconditioning technique preserves the papaya quality under storage at sub-optimum temperatures as low as 7 °C without chilling injury symptoms, with a longer shelf life (4 weeks) than only three weeks for conventional handling techniques. The fruits can be ripened by being exposed to ethylene when they are ready to be marketed.
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