Effect of Post Harvest Application on Fruit Quality Changes and Storage Stability in Bartlett Pear under Refrigerated Storage.

The present investigation was carried out to study the effect of various post harvest treatments (shrink wrap, 1-MCP@1ppm, 1-MCP@1ppm + Shrink Wrap, Carbendazim @ 500 ppm, Carbendazim @ 500 ppm + Shrink Wrap, Calcium Chloride @ 4%, Calcium Chloride @ 4%, + Shrink Wrap, Wax (SH002) @ 10%, Wax (SHOO2)@10% + Shrink Wrap ) in order to increase the shelf life and to avoid post harvest losses of William’s Bartlett Pear under refrigerated storage conditions (Temperature 1-2 C and 85-95% RH). In physical characteristics PLW, spoilage, firmness, juice yield, colour, texture, flavour and overall acceptability were studied during refrigerated storage conditions. In chemical characteristic TSS, total sugar, pectin, acidity, ascorbic acid and total chlorophyll were analyzed after 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90 and 105 Days of storage. After 105 days of refrigerated storage best two treatments i.e. T3 (1-MCP@1ppm) and T4 (1-MCP@1ppm + Shrink Wrap) were subjected to quality evaluation for 10 days under ambient storage conditions. 1-MCP@1ppm + Shrink Wrap was reported superior to all other treatments. 1-MCP@1ppm + Shrink Wrap proved very useful for reducing storage loss, spoilage. Sensory panel evaluation exhibited fair to good acceptability response of 1 MCP@ 1ppm +shrink-wrapped fruit up to 105 days of storage, where as in control lots the quality attributed showed maximum acceptability only up to 75 days under refrigerated storage conditions. Agriculture Introduction Fruit culture is an important industry in the economy of Jammu and Kashmir State. Pear (Pyrus communis L.) belongs to family Rosaceae and is an important fruit cultivated throughout the temperate regions of world (Meheriuk and Lau, 1988; Anonymous, 2005). In Jammu and Kashmir, pear ranks second after apple in production with the annual production of 47.38 (000 MT) cultivated over an area of 12.359 (000 hectares) (Anonymous, 2008). The important cultivars grown in the valley include Bartlett, Monarch, Devoes, Fertility, Chinese Sandy Pear, and Vicar of Wink Field (Farooqui and Happa, 1990). Amongst them, Bartlett occupies more area throughout the world including J&K state (Anonymous, 2005). Fresh Bartlett pear contains moisture (86.5%), protein (0.4%), fat (0.1%), minerals (0.3%), fiber (2.15%), other carbohydrates (10.6%), calcium (20mg/100g), phosphorus (20mg/100g), Iron (1.5mg/100g), Vitamin A (0 IU/100g), Nicotine acid (0.2mg/100g), Vitamin C (1mg/100g) (Rathore, 1991). The cultivar matures usually in the 3rd week of July (110 DAFB) and is harvested in August. The fruit is traditionally packed in wooden boxes and is transported outside the valley for either cold storage or fresh marketing. Being climacteric in nature, its rate of ripening is very fast after harvesting and has very limited shelf life. After harvest a good portion of fruit gets wasted resulting in greater economic losses to the growers, due to lack of proper post harvest infrastructure facilities (Ghani et al., 2003). Post harvest management practices such as harvesting at optimum maturity, controlled atmosphere storage, post harvest dipping of fruits in various chemicals e.g. Calcium chloride, wax coating, anti ethylene (1-MCP) treatment, etc. have been attempted to prolong the post harvest quality for pear fruit with variable degree of success (Banks et al., 1993). The main purpose of post harvest management systems is to maintain quality, increase the period of availability of fruit for table purpose, extending the working period of food processing plants, avoiding gluts in the market at certain periods, providing variety to the consumers and fetch higher profits to the growers with increased export potentialities. However, in Kashmir valley, very little information is available regarding the impact of post harvest treatments and storage conditions on the shelf life of pear particularly Bartlett. Therefore, keeping in view the above facts, the present investigations are aimed to improve the shelf life of the pear under controlled conditions by the application of various post harvest treatments Material and Methods:The present investigation was carried out in the department of post harvest technology Sher-e-Kashmir University of science and technology Shalimar Jammu and Kashmir. Freshly harvested healthy and uniform sized fruits taken from the orchard during autumn seasons were subjected to pre-cooling treatment at 4 C for 24 hrs to remove field heat. The experiment consists of 10 post harvest treatments viz,