1990 Volume 34 Issue 1 Pages 8-19
Asian pear cv. Pien Pu fruits coated with a sucrose ester wax for fruit coating and seal-packaged on foam trays over-wrapped with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or Polyethylene (PE) film were stored at ambient temperature (28-33°C) and 81-85%RH and at 17°C and 90-95%RH in a water-roof pond passively cooled room. At room tempeature, PE film packaging reduced fruit weight loss to 2-5% during 5 weeks in storage, which was about one-fifth of the packless control. PVC film reduced water loss to about half and about one-third. Wax coating reduced weight loss by about 5-15% which is inadequate in retaining texture quality during prolonged storage. Fruits stored in the passively cooled room (17°C) lost less than 5% of their weight. Waxing or film packaging were benefical in reducing fruit weight loss in the passively cooled room.
Wax coating was better than film packaging in delaying loss of fruit firmness and retarding ripening. At 17°C, storage life of wax-coated fruits was extended to more than 6 weeks and the fruits were unripe.
PVC film packaging slowed down the rate of chlorophyll breakdown and the packaged fruits had greener skin color for one week. Wax-coated fruits retained chlorophyll longer than PVC film packaged fruits, but the green skin fruits had blotchy skin. Conbined treatment of waxing plus PVC film packaging had an additive effect by increasing the number of green fruits with uniform green skin color.
