Effect of calcium dips combined with mild heating on postharvest life and quality of strawberry
by Md. Atiqur Rahman; Most. Mahbuba Begum; Munshi Rashid Ahmad
International Journal of Postharvest Technology and Innovation (IJPTI), Vol. 3, No. 3, 2013

Abstract: The effect of calcium dips combined with mild heat treatment on quality and postharvest life of strawberries (cv. BARI strawberry-1) was studied. Immediately after harvest, strawberries were treated by dipping in distilled water, CaCl2 solutions at 1%, 2% and 3% for 15 min at 45°C and left untreated. Subsequently, the fruits were stored at 10°C with 80 ± 5% RH for 8 days. The effectiveness of the treatments was assessed by evaluating their impact on surface damage, quality attributes and overall visual appearance. Dipping strawberries in 1% CaCl2 solution at 45°C was the most effective treatment for decreasing surface damage, maintaining better firmness, reducing weight loss and delaying both fungal decay and external colour changes compared to 2 and 3% CaCl2 or other treatments. To a lesser extent, titratable acidity and pH were also affected by calcium dips. Considering the surface damage and firmness data, the postharvest life of 1% CaCl2-dipped strawberries was noted eight days whilst it was four to five days in other treatments. Moreover, 1% calcium dips increased the nutritional value by incrementing 31% of calcium content which did not affect the sensorial quality of fruits.

Online publication date: Sat, 05-Jul-2014

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