Mango is the fruit crop ranked in importance and is widely consumed in Thailand. The harvesting season in Thailand is limited and only about one month in spring. Mango fruits, like other tropical fruits, are susceptible to decay during their postharvest life and various researches have been conducted to seek treatments and techniques to maintain and extend postharvest life.
This study was undertaken to investigate the influence of packaging of ‘Keaw Sawoey’ mango fruits in different kind of plastic films or MA storage in polypropyrene bag and the effects of low pressure on the ripening and quality of fruits kept under ambient temperature (28-33°C) and 13°C.
Mature green fruits of mango cv. ‘Keaw Sawoey’ were individually seal-packaged in polyethylene (PE, 0.011mm) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC, 0.014mm) films and stored at 13°C with 78%RH and ambient temperature (28-33°C) with 80±2%RH. The fruits seal-packaged with plastic films could be maintained the acceptable quality as green consumable stage for 6-9 days and 30-36 days at ambient temperature and 13°C, respectively, while the unpackaged fruits were shrivelled and overripe within a short time. Hence, this represented extention of the storage life for 3-6 days and 2-3 weeks over the unpackaged control. PVC packaging was more effective to delay the fruit ripening better than PE packaging. The mango fruits stored in polypropylene bag (PP, 0.031mm) with air and with 5% CO
2 and 5% O
2 or under low pressure (260 Torr), although they were unripe, suffered from fermentation after 1 and 3 weeks during storage at 13°C.
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