2013 ASHS Annual Conference

‘Fajri’ mango due to large fruit size and being mid to late fruit maturity has tremendous potential for export. However, its response to cold storage has not been studied. Therefore, present studies were carried out to study the effect of low temperature on storage life and quality of ‘Fajri’ mango. The fruit harvested at commercial maturity were stored at 10, 12 or 14 ± 1 °C and 80% to 85% RH for 21 days. After storage, the rate of respiration in the fruit stored at 12 °C and 14 °C remained 1–2 times higher than fruit kept at 10 °C. Storage of fruit at 14 °C resulted in significantly higher fruit skin shriveling, fruit softening, disease incidence, and severity as compared to at 10 °C and 12 °C. The fruit stored at 10 °C and 12 °C showed statistically similar behavior regarding fruit peel color, fruit softness, disease incidence, disease severity, skin shriveling, acidity, SSC: TA ratio, total sugars, and reducing sugar contents. No chilling injury symptoms were observed at all storage temperatures. The extent of yellow peel color and disease incidence was significantly higher at 14 °C as compared to at 10 °C and 12 °C. In conclusion, the ‘Fajri’ mango exhibited 21 days storage life at 10 °C or 12 °C followed by 4–5 days of shelf under ambient conditions (32 ± 1 °C; 55% to 60% RH). However, there is need to investigate and develop the strategies for disease management and poststorage peel color development for better consumer acceptability.