Handling systems to reduce mango sapburn.
Holmes R. J., Ledger S. N., Macleod W. N. B.
Author Affiliation: Department of Primary Industries, Ayr 4807, Queensland, Australia.
: 528-532
Abstract : Visual assessment of mango cv. Kensington Pride fruits in Australian wholesale markets revealed that sapburn was the major problem with fruit quality. Current practice entails the fruits being picked with long stems, the stems being removed in the packing shed and the fruits placed stem downward on a conveyor belt for 20-30 min. However, some degree of sapburn is still suffered by 50-60% of fruits. Recent work has found several ways of reducing sapburn: (i) detergent dips prior to removal of the peduncle; (ii) removal of the peduncle in lime solution; (iii) packing with short stems; (iv) picking without stems onto a harvesting aid (a sloping canvas catching device soaked with detergent) and dipping or spraying with detergent immediately. Of these methods, the harvesting aid proved to be the most effective, reducing sapburn incidence to 15.9% and using only half the labour of other methods.