Shelf life extension of carica papaya by shrink wrapping

Abstract

Papaya (Carica papaya) is a popular and economically important fruit of tropical and subtropical countries. Papaya ranks first among 13 to 17 fresh fruits for vitamin C content per 100 grams edible tissue. One serving of papaya will meet about 20% of an adult's daily folate needs and provides about 75% of an adult's daily vitamin C needs. Marketing of fresh papaya is a great problem because of its short post-harvest life, which leads to high post-harvest losses. Papaya fruits soften rapidly at room temperature after harvest with a very short shelf life. Considering the heavy post-harvest losses the technology of shrink wrapping has been standardized. This technique involves over wrapping of the produce with heat-shrinkable films of the desirable thickness with the help of a machine. Shrink film or Shrink wrap is a material made up of polymer plastic film. When heat is applied, it shrinks tightly over the material it is covering. The focus of this research was to study the effect of shrink wrapping on physico-chemical properties and shelf life extension of papaya. Two sets of fruits (wrapped and unwrapped) were held at ambient (32-39 oC, 72-83% RH) and refrigerated (10-12 oC, 90-95% RH) conditions throughout the storage period. Weight loss, pH, Moisture content, TSS, vitamin C, vitamin A, proteins, carbohydrates were evaluated at an interval of 4 days. Changes in moisture content, protein, vitamin C, carbohydrates of the shrink-wrapped fruits were lower than that of non-wrapped fruits during storage. Papaya fruits stored at room temperature, refrigeration, shrink wrapped and shrink wrap + refrigeration had a shelf life of 9, 14, 13, and 16 days respectively. By the observed results it was proved that shrink wrapped fruits at refrigerated conditions had longer storage period compared to other storage conditions.