Post-harvested blackberry, raspberry and strawberry fruits were immediately treated with 1% and 2% calcium chloride by immersion at 20 ± 1°C for 2.5 min and kept for 8 days at 0 ± 0.5°C and relative humidity (RH) 90 ± 5%. The application of calcium did not significantly effect on total titratable acidity, pH and total soluble solids. Maximum weight lost was observed for untreated berries and minimum lost was observed for fruits treated with 2% calcium chloride. After storage, ascorbic acid content was significantly higher in samples of blackberry, raspberry and strawberry fruits subjected to 2% calcium chloride dip. Treatment of blackberry, raspberry and strawberry fruits with calcium chloride had a positive effect on retention of total polyphenols content during the storage period. Depletion of antioxidant capacity of untreated fresh blackberry fruits during 8 days cold storage was 25%; raspberries and strawberries - 34 and 26 % respectively. Whereas depletion of antioxidant activity in the 2% calcium chloride treated samples of these fruits was 8, 22 and 11% respectively. In case of storage of untreated blackberry fruits content of cyanidin-3-O-monoglucoside decreased by 6.33 mg per 100 g of fruit. While, in fruit samples treated with 1 and 2% calcium chloride content of cyanidin-3-O-monoglucoside decreased by 32.06 and 11.35 mg per 100 g of fruit, respectively. Content of pelargonidin 3–O- monoglucoside increased by 2.29 mg per 100 g of the untreated blackberry fruits and by 26.87 and 8.45 mg per 100 g of fruits treated with 1 and 2% calcium chloride respectively. Change of content of cyanidin 3–O- (6 - p – coumaroyl - glucoside) in blackberry fruits was not statistically significant.

Chrysophyllum albidum fruits are underutilized because they are seasonal and perishable in nature due to physiological, biochemical and microbial alteration. This study investigated the potency of calcium chloride (CaCl2) in suppressing postharvest deterioration of Chrysophyllum albidum fruits. Ripe wholesome fruits of Chrysophyllum albidum were harvested and treated with different concentrations of CaCl2 (1, 2, and 3%) at three different dip times (5, 10, and 15 min). The goal was to use established analytical methods to investigate the influence of CaCl2 on the firmness, weight loss, pH, titratable acidity, total sugar (TS), pectin, color, microbial (fungi and bacteria) loads of Chrysophyllum albidum fruits. All the treated fruits were stored at ambient temperature 28 ± 2°C and 90± 5% relative humidity for 15 days. The obtained results indicated that treating Chrysophyllum albidum fruits with 3% CaCl2 for 15 min was found the most effective in controlling weight loss, microbial load, color, firmness, and other compositional changes such as pH, titratable acidity, pectin and total sugar. It was observed that CaCl2 treated samples showed reduced fungal loads from 6.00 × 103 SFU/g at harvest to 0.02 × 103 SFU/g after 15 d of storage as compared to untreated samples. No record of bacterial load was detected on Chrysophyllum albidum fruits treated with 3% CaCl2 for 15 min. The shelf life of Chrysophyllum albidum fruits could be extended for 15 d without excessive deterioration in quality by treating the fruits with 3% CaCl2 for 15 min with a minimum quality loss, as compared to the control sample which had greater compositional changes with maximum quality loss during storage at ambient temperature.