High-temperature conditioning reduces hot water treatment injury of 'Kensington Pride' mango fruit.
Joyce D. C., Shorter A. J.
Author Affiliation: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Division of Horticulture, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia.
HortScience 29 : 1047-1051
Abstract : Mango fruits can be injured by heat disinfestation protocols imposed to kill insects. The capacity of mango cv. Kensington Pride fruits to acclimatize, and thereby become more tolerant of heat disinfestation treatments, was investigated. Conditioned fruits (7-h heating-up period to a 37°C core temperature maintained for ?12 h) showed less pulp injury on ripening following hot water treatment (1.5 h for previously conditioned fruits and 2 h for fruits not previously conditioned) than fruits not conditioned before hot water treatment. During treatment, the core reached 47° and was maintained at this temperature for 25 min. Extending the conditioning period by ?12 h beyond the 7-h heating-up period (total of 19 h) gave no additional benefit. Conditioning did not consistently reduce peel injury induced by hot water treatment, as indicated by irreversible loss of chlorophyll variable fluorescence.