Enhancing the postharvest shelf life and quality of papaya fruits using different packaging materials and storage conditions

Abstract

In India, papaya is cultivated on an area of 68,000 ha with a total production of 2.15 million tonnes. Being a climacteric crop, papaya has relatively a shorter shelf-life and is characterized by increased respiration and ethylene evolution during ripening leading to fruit softening and susceptibility to postharvest diseases and mechanical losses. Postharvest loss in papaya is reported to be 40-100%. This study was conducted to assess the effects of packaging materials and storage environments on shelf life of papaya fruit (Carica papaya L.). A factorial combination of four packaging materials (LDPE, PP, stretch film and newspaper) and two storage environments using randomized complete block design with three replications were used. The physico chemical parameters like physiological loss in weight (7.26 %), TSS (11.4˚ brix), firmness (7.42 N), ascorbic acid (43.01 mg/100g) and total sugar (8.40%) were retained maximum in LDPE upto 16 days of storage as compared to control and other packaging materials under refrigerated condition.