Modified atmosphere packaging of papaya (Carica papaya L.) fruits for extension of storage life

Abstract

Papaya is a commercial fruit crop of the sub-tropical and tropical regions of the world. Short postharvest life and chilling sensitive nature of the fruit limits its long duration storage, transportation and marketing. Quality conservation becomes indispensable for papaya because the greatest part of the amount harvested is destined to fresh fruit commerce. So, there is a need to develop an appropriate postharvest technology where the benefits of modified atmosphere as well as low temperature storage can be obtained to improve the storage life and maintain quality, thus allowing a greater rationalization in its distribution and commercialization. ‘Solo’ papaya is extolled for its demand in the domestic and international market. The present investigation was carried out to standardize the optimum modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) conditions for papaya fruit to extend its storage life at different storage temperatures and to study the effect of MAP on the alleviation of chilling injury (CI). Mature green fruits were individually packed in different types of polymeric films viz., LDPE, PP, Pebax® and stored at 7, 13 ºC and room temperature (27-32 ºC). The physiological response and ripening behavior of the fruits was studied at regular intervals after storage and were evaluated for various quality parameters. MAP of individual papaya fruits with Pebax® or LDPE film could extend the storage life and maintain the quality up to two weeks over one week in nonpacked fruits under ambient conditions. At low temperature (13 ºC), the storage life of papaya could be extended to one month when packed in LDPE or Pebax® film without any CI symptoms and the fruits ripened normally in one week under controlled conditions (20 ±1 ºC & 75-80% RH).The fruits stored at 7 ºC failed to ripen normally and showed severe CI symptoms and disease incidence.