Studies on Storage Methods of Agricultural Products (III)

Effect of Precooling and Cold Storage Methods on the Quality of Satsuma Mandarin and Performance of Jacketed Cold Storage (2)

Abstract

In this paper we describe an experimental study of the comparative effects of precooling and storage methods on the quality of satsuma Mandarin and the storage parformance of jacketed cold storage.
The quality of Satsuma Mandarin was inspected for external appearance, weight loss, sugar content and acidity during storage.
A summary of the results is shown below.
1) The rate of weight loss of Satsuma Mandarin which cured, hydrocooled, packed in mesh container and room-cooled and packed in paper carton and room-cooled and stored in conventional cold storage (3±1.5°C, 85±5% R. H.) was 7.06, 6.29, 6.50, 5.86% a month, and stored in jacketed cold storage (3±1.0°C, 92.5±2.5% R. H.) was 6.08, 5.29, 5.57, 5.61% a month respectively.
2) The accumulated weight of decayed Satsuma Mandarin in jacketed cold storage was about half of that of conventional cold storage.
3) Curing treatment had some effect on the quality of Satsuma Mandarin stored at normal temperature after cured, but had no effect on that stored in cold storage.
4) The coefficient of correlation between sugar content, acidity and storage time of Satsuma Mandarin was +0.58 and -0.88 respectively.
5) From the view point of deteroration of the acidity, as a tentative criterion, commericial storage limits of Satsuma Mandarin in conventional and jacketed cold storbge was mid April and mid May respectively.
6) From the facts described above, we may conclude that jacketed cold storage has a superior storage performance than that of conventional cold storage for Satsuma Mandarin.