The effects of modified atmosphere packaging on minimally processed dragon fruit (Hylocereus polyrhizus) stored at low temperature

Abstract

This study involved minimally processed (MP) red dragon fruit which also known as red pitaya. MP dragon fruit is ready-to-eat product which provides convenience as consumers do not need to peel and cut the fruits before consume it. However, the fruits is very perishable and continue to respire which resulted in degradation of products. Many techniques can be applied to increase the shelf-life of MP fruits. One of the most adopted techniques is modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) which provide optimal balanced of gases inside the package. Physico-chemical analyses of total color change, firmness, ratio of total soluble solid (TSS) to titratable acidity (TA), anthocyanin content, percentage of weight loss, and sensory evaluation were carried out to determine the storage quality of MP dragon fruits in different MAP namely polypropylene container, sealed polypropylene film, polypropylene film with vacuum for 5 seconds and PVC cling wrap which serve as control. All the samples were stored at 5±1 °C; RH 90% for 8 days and analyzed every 2 day intervals. The total color changes and percentage weight loss showed increasing patterns throughout the storage whereas, firmness, anthocyanin content and the ratio of TSS to TA showed decreasing patterns. There were significant differences {p<0.05) among all the treatments in all the parameters tested except for the ratio of TSS to TA which showed no different. The sensory acceptance conducted indicates that all the packed samples were still acceptable up until day 8 with sweetness and the overall acceptability scored higher for all types of MAP treatments. However, among all the treatments, polypropylene container was the most effective packaging system for extending the shelf-life of minimally processed dragon fruits with the least changes in almost all the quality attributes.