Film wrapping mangoes at advancing stages of post-harvest ripening.
Miller W. R., Spalding D. H., Hale P. W.
Author Affiliation: Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Orlando, FL 32803, USA.
Tropical Science 26 : 9-17
Abstract : Mango fruits (cv. Tommy Atkins) wrapped in plastic film when mature, with green peel colour, had more serious decay (mainly caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides [Glomerella cingulata] and Diplodia natalensis [Botryodiplodia theobromae]) before reaching the soft-ripe stage and had less yellow colour development of the pulp at soft-ripeness, than non-wrapped fruit held in storage at 21°C. No significant difference was found in weight loss, peel colour, pulp colour, firmness, decay and time to reach soft-ripeness between two different types of plastic film (Clysar EHC-50 copolymer, 13 ?m thick, and Cryovac D 955, a cross-linked polyolefin film 15 ?m thick). Total time required for fruits to reach this stage was reduced to 16 days, by wrapping them after the initiation of ground peel colour development, from the 20 days required when wrapping mature-green fruit. However, there was no practical advantage since non-wrapped mature-green fruit also reached soft-ripeness in 16 days. Regardless of the post-harvest stage of ripening when film wrapping was applied, fruit tended to have a higher incidence of off-flavour at soft-ripeness than fruit not wrapped and ripened to soft-ripeness.