Quality retention of dragon fruit (Hylocereus polyrhizus) using different packaging systems

Abstract

Dragon fruits (Hylocereus polyrhizus) are high valued and perishable fruits. There is growing demand for dragon fruits from nearby countries such as China, Singapore, Hong Kong and it also has good potential to be exported to Europe countries. Thus, postharvest treatments are needed to reduce deterioration of fruits physical appearance and damages due to disease attacks. This study was conducted to determine the effects of different packaging systems on postharvest quality of dragon fruit stored at temperature of 10±1 °C for 12 days. The commercial maturity (Index 4) of red-fleshed dragon fruits were individually packed in the 0.059 mm thick low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic film in non-perforated, perforated and partial vacuum (5 sec) conditions and the unpacked fruits were used as control in this study. Changes in the percentage of weight loss, skin and flesh color, firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), and visual assessments for disease infestation and wrinkles development on fruits were observed during storage. Partial vacuum packed maintained fruits physical appearance better with much reduced disease infestation after 12 days of storage as compared with the unpacked and perforation packed fruits which were rejected by day 9 and day 12 respectively. Besides, partial vacuum packed was also significantly more effective in controlling the fruit weight loss where the percentage of weight loss was the least during 12 days of storage as compared with other treatments. However, other fruits quality characteristics were not affected by the packaging treatments. The unpacked fruits have the lowest firmness on day 12 whereas partial vacuum packed fruits showed no significant reduction in fruit firmness. TSS of fruit was minimally affected. This study indicates that partial vacuum packaging could be recommended as a potential packaging system in reducing postharvest losses of dragon fruit particularly during distribution and marketing for domestic and export markets.