POSTHARVEST PERFORMANCE OF STRAWBERRY (Fragaria ananassa Duchesne) USING DIFFERENT STORAGE CONDITION and PACKAGING MATERIALS

Abstract

Strawberry is a popular fruit crop in many countries worldwide due to its refreshing and delicious taste besides being a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Taking the benefits derived from this fruit, this study was conducted to evaluate the following aspects. 

                Physical characteristics of the fruit which includes weight loss, visual quality rating, degree of shrivelling, decay incidence and sensory firmness clearly showed that refrigerated storage lengthened postharvest life of strawberry fruits to fourfold than when stored at ambient condition.

Chemical characteristics also showed higher values of Total Soluble Solids (TSS) in the refrigerated storage than in the ambient condition where temperature is higher.  The reverse was true with titratable acidity (TA) which was higher at ambient condition.  The different packaging materials did not manifest any effect on both postharvest physical and chemical attributes of strawberry except for styrofor box which showed the highest TSS