Abstract:
A study on the screening of post-harvest qualities of five varieties of sapota
grown In the college orchard was conducted at the Department of Processing
Technology, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara during 1998-99.
On screening varieties like 'Cricket Ball', 'Co-I', 'Co-2', 'PKM l' and
'Oval' for physical, chemical and sensory parameters, 'Co-2', 'PKM l ' and 'Oval'
were rated best for table purpose, while 'Co-2' for distant marketing and 'Co-I' for
processing qualities.
Individually wrapping the fruits with cling film, or packaging fruits with 30
per cent moistened saw dust was evolved as the best storage technique to extend the
shelf-life of sapota at ambient temperature. Saw dust being cheap, and less labour
intensive can be suggested as an appropriate storage technique at field level without
the involvement of any chemical, electricity or civil structure, while cling wrap can be
aimed for retail marketing.
Osmotic dehydration of sapota slices of thickness 0.5 to 1 cm using dry
sugar containing 1500 ppm S02 and 0.3 per cent citric acid in a ratio of 1: 1 for eight
hours followed by oven drying took only 16 hours to accomplish the drying unlike the
reported 33 hours of osmo-air drying. Thus the technique developed can improve the
quality of the product many fold and can reduce the energy consumption considerably.
