Management practices for shelf life extension of fresh cut jackfruit and pomegranate

Abstract

The study entitled “Management practices for shelf life extension of fresh-cut jackfruit and pomegranate” was conducted at the Department of Postharvest Management, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during the period of 2022-2024, with the objective of standardizing the pre-treatments, packaging and storage systems for shelf life extension of jackfruit bulbs and pomegranate arils. The study was conducted as two separate experiments for jackfruit and pomegranate. Fresh, good quality, optimum mature jackfruit (Varikka) with relatively uniform size and weight were harvested from the Instructional Farm, Vellayani, allowed to ripe and used for the study; whereas good quality ripe pomegranate relatively of uniform size, weight and colour were procured from VFPCK outlet, Thiruvananthapuram and used for the study. Both the fruits were subjected to ozonization (2 ppm). Experiments were carried out in two parts viz., evaluation of pre-treatments and development of packaging and storage system. Jackfruit bulbs with seeds intact and pomegranate arils (100% usable form) were extracted from the sanitized fruits, pre-treated with four different solutions viz., 0.5% ascorbic acid, 0.5% citric acid, 1% calcium chloride and 1% calcium ascorbate for 4 minutes, air-dried and were kept in areca sheath bowls wrapped with cling film along with the corresponding untreated bulbs and arils (control), under refrigeration (5±2oC), to analyze the efficacy of pre-treatments. Pre-treated fresh-cut jackfruit bulbs and pomegranate arils resulted in better physical, physiological and chemical parameters as compared to the untreated ones. Pre treatment of jackfruit bulbs with 1% calcium ascorbate resulted in maximum shelf life (5.00 days), vitamin C (24.53 mg 100g-1), carotenoid (0.83 mg 100g-1), lowest physiological loss in weight (1.39 %), percent leakage (85.40%), acidity (0.31%), phenol (35.64 mg 100g-1), total sugar (37.59 %), reducing sugar (18.87 %) and TSS (23.80oB) with best sensory scores after 5 days of storage. During the initial, 1st, 2nd and 3rd days also, the physiological parameters were superior for calcium ascorbate treated bulbs. 184 Pomegranate arils treated with 1% calcium ascorbate recorded the maximum shelf life (5.00 days), vitamin C (23.26 mg 100g-1), anthocyanin (3.19 mg 100g-1), lowest physiological loss in weight (1.70%), percent leakage (39.17%), acidity (0.38%), phenol (210.99 mg 100g-1), total sugar (33.05%), reducing sugar (15.01%) and TSS (15.89oB) with best sensory scores after 5 days of storage. Hence, 1% calcium ascorbate was selected as the best pre-treatment solution for both fresh-cut jackfruit bulbs and pomegranate arils. In second part of the study, fresh-cut jackfruit bulbs and pomegranate arils treated with 1% calcium ascorbate solution, were subjected to different packaging systems viz., shrink wrapping in 15µ polyolefin film, vacuum packaging in laminated pouches, MAP with N2 flushing in laminated pouches, aluminium tray wrapped with cling film and open storage in paper plate (control) and stored under refrigerated (5±2°C) and low temperature (10±5°C) conditions. Pre-treated jackfruit bulbs in MAP with N2 flushing in laminated pouches stored under refrigerated condition (5±20C) recorded the maximum shelf life (10.00 days), vitamin C (20.18 mg 100g-1), carotenoid (0.77 mg 100g-1), least physiological loss in weight (4.86%), percent leakage (78.05%), acidity (0.38%), total sugar (39.37 %), reducing sugar (16.81%), TSS (23.25oB) and phenol (35.42 mg 100g-1) with best sensory scores after 10 days of storage. Fresh-cut jackfruit bulbs without any package (control) had the least shelf life (2.00 days) with maximum physiological loss in weight (3.26%) when kept under low temperature condition. Pre-treated pomegranate arils in MAP with N2 flushing in laminated pouches stored under low temperature condition resulted in maximum shelf life (6.00 days), vitamin C (23.02 mg 100g1), anthocyanin (2.87 mg 100g-1), least physiological loss in weight (3.88%), percent leakage (68.15%), acidity (0.42%), total sugar (35.46%), reducing sugar (17.15%), TSS (16.00oB) and phenol (214.16 mg 100g-1) with best sensory scores after 6 days of storage. Unpackaged arils stored under refrigerated condition recorded the least shelf life (2.00 days) with highest physiological loss in weight (5.10%). The fresh-cut jackfruit bulbs and pomegranate arils, pre-treated with 1% calcium ascorbate solution for 4 minutes and kept in MAP with N2 flushing in laminated pouches were microbiologically safe with superior physical, physiological and chemical parameters upto 10 days under refrigerated (5±20C) and 6 days under low temperature (10±50C) conditions respectively.