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Title: Occurrence of chilling injury in fresh-cut ‘Kent’ mangoes

Author
item Dea, Sharon
item BRECHT, JEFFREY - University Of Florida
item NUNES, M.C.N. - University Of Florida
item Baldwin, Elizabeth - Liz

Submitted to: Postharvest Biology and Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/22/2010
Publication Date: 4/19/2010
Citation: Dea, S., Brecht, J.K., Nunes,M.C.N., Baldwin, E.A. 2010. Occurrence of chilling injury in fresh-cut ‘Kent’ mangoes. Postharvest Biology and Technology. 57:61-71.

Interpretive Summary: Fresh-cut produce is a fast growing area of the fresh produce industry. Fresh-cut mango is popular and nutrtious, but problematic to handle. Intact mango fruit, being of tropical origin, incur chilling injury at temperatures below 12 ºC, however, visual symptoms are exhibited in the peel. With fresh-cut mango, the peel is removed so it was not clear if any internal chilling injury occured in fresh-cut mango pieces stored at 5 ºC, the optimal temperature for holding fresh-cut produce. Therefore intact and fresh-cut mango fruits were stored at the cilling temperature of 5 ºC and at tne non-chilling temperature of 12 ºC. It was found that the there was little indication of chilling injury in cut-mango stored at 5 ºC, and the lower temperature maintained the visual quality of the fresh-cut mango longer than when the pieces were stored at 12 ºC.

Technical Abstract: For best visual quality retention of fresh-cut fruits, the preferred storage temperature is about 5 °C, which is considered a chilling temperature for chilling sensitive tropical fruits like mango. Changes in visual and compositional attributes, aroma volatile production, respiration rate, and electrolyte leakage were evaluated in whole and fresh cut partially ripe 'Kent' mangoes stored for 10 d at chilling (5 °C) and non-chilling (12 °C) temperatures. The experiment was conducted twice during two Florida mango seasons, with fruit from two different sources. Results from the two harvests were significantly different and therefore were analyzed separately. Visual quality degradation was faster at 12 °C than at 5 °C, and limited the shelf-life of fresh-cut mango to 3-4 d at 12 °C versus 5-6 d at 5 °C. Soluble solids content and aroma volatile production did not differ among whole fruit and fresh-cut slices stored at either chilling or non-chilling temperatures, with the exception of the alcohols (methanol and ethanol), which was higher in samples stored at 12 °C. Subjective evaluation indicated that aroma intensity declined more during storage of fresh-cut slices at 5 °C than at 12 °C, but only acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and ethyl butyrate were found to be significantly reduced in the slices stored at 5 °C and only in the second harvest. Respiration rate, pH, and total ascorbic acid were higher in both the fresh-cut slices and whole fruit stored at 12 °C compared with storage at 5°C, while titratable acidity was higher in samples stored at 5 °C than in those at 12°C. Although electrolyte leakage was higher in fresh-cut slices than in whole fruit, no conclusion could be made regarding the effect of storage temperature. It is unclear whether the storage duration at 5 °C was sufficiently long to cause chilling injury in fresh-cut mango slices since no visual symptoms developed in whole fruit. However, lower ascorbic acid content, limited reduction of volatiles and increased softening at 5 °C versus 12 °C suggest that the fresh-cut slices did experience chilling stress.