TECHNICAL SHEETRIPENING AND CONSERVATIONAVOCADOPRACTICAL SHEETRIPENING AND CONSERVATIONAVOCADODid you know?
Oil extracted from Avocado is a healthy fat which may help support heart health and improve your intake of vitamin
E and health-promoting fatty acids. Avocado oil has a high smoke point and makes an excellent choice for fryingand baking.
Avocado (Avocat, fr, Aguacate, sp., Palta, Peru/Chile) is known as a superfood, containing healthy fats, anti-aging, diseasefighting antioxidants, nearly 20 vitamins and minerals. There are many cultivars, the most known being Hass Avocado,
accounting for more than 80% of worldwide exported avocado. Other well-known cultivars are Fuerte, Pinkerton, Reed,Bacon. Avocado can be oval (egg-shaped), pear-shaped or spherical, with rugged or flat skin.

MATURITY INDICES
Avocado is harvested based on Dry Matter, highly correlated with oil content. Dry Mater (Materia seca in Spanish) is given
in % and indicates the maturity of the avocado.
Most of the countries are setting Dry Matter ratio as maturity index, with different cultivar having different ratio. Hass, themost exported cultivar, is acceptable to be harvested when minimum Dry Matter is around 22%.

QUALITY INDICES
Avocados maturate in the tree, but ripen after the harvest. Ripening needs to be done close to consumption date;ripening is done at room temperature, under the presence of ethylene.
Keeping the fruit (yes, avocado is a fruit) in the tree after achieving maturity much longer than required may result in offflavor or rancidity.
› Size (range of consumer preference);› shape (cultivar-dependent);› skin color;› absence of defects such as sunburn, wounds and skin blemishes (rubs, insect damage, hail, and wind scars), rancidityand flesh browning;› no diseases, such as anthracnose and stem-end rot.

OPTIMUM TRANSPORT PARAMETERS
Which are the best parameters and how long can avocados be transported?
With so many cultivars, maturity levels, conditioning mode, the answer is not so obvious. Most avocado travels overseas
under Controlled Atmosphere, which, next to temperature control, optimizes the Potential Shelf Life.
Primary requirement to optimize long conservation is fast pre-cooling to a temperature of 5-7°C; an avocado with a higher
maturity index is likely to resist to a lower temperature exposure.
In general, the temperature within the Refrigerated Container should be set between 4°C and 7°C.
The avocado from the same orchard may need to be transported at 7°C in the beginning of the season and 4°C towards
the end of the season.
Oxygen (O2) in the range of 3-5% and Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the range of 4-8% ensures an optimization of PotentialShelf Life.

SUGGESTED PARAMETERS TO BE SET ON REEFER
Set Temperature 3.5-6°C
Set Oxygen 3-6%
Set Carbon dioxide 4-8%.
No dehumidification. If avocado has been harvested in particularly humid period, dehumidification at 85% RH may be set
for the first 48 hours. Failing to switch it off afterwards may result in dehydration.
NOTE: Above general recommendations are provided only for the sake of assisting our customers. They are non-binding as the parameters mayvary depending on the cargo variety and its maturity. CMA CGM cannot be held accountable for the information and contents provided herein.

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Source: UC Davis