Abstract:
Bananas intended for export are harvested at unripe stage as bananas ripened on plant often split, have poor texture and tend to be mealy. Thus, they are needed to be artificially ripened in ripening room once they arrive at destination before they can be at the point of sale. However, precise and well-controlled condition of ripening room
is required and this in turn increases the total cost of the post-harvest handling of banana. This subsequently gives rise to its price. Therefore, mixed loading of banana with other fruits, such as pineapple, can be an alternative way to trigger the ripening of banana. This project was carried out to study the effects of mixed loading of bananas with pineapples at optimum storage temperature (13±1 °C) for 12 days. In
this project, 1 kg of bananas were packed together with pineapples in 1 :0 (control), 1 :1, 1 :2 and 1 :3 ratio by weight (kg). Ripening of bananas was examined every 3 days based on the changes on skin colour, pulp firmness, starch content, TSS content and weight loss. The statistical analysis indicates that bananas from treatment of 1 :3 changed significantly on day 3 for all the parameters except weight loss, implying that the ripening was induced before day 3 while those from treatment of 1 :2 changed significantly on day 6, indicating that ripening was initiated after day 3. Bananas from treatment of 1: 1 showed significant changes into yellow colour after day 6. Throughout the storage period, bananas from treatment of 1: 1 and control exhibited significant different from treatment of 1 :2 and 1 :3, implying that their ripening commencement was triggered much slower. Thus, it could be suggested that weight ratio of 1 :3 could be used to induce ripening of bananas more rapidly compared to the other treatments and control.
