Title: Effect of calcium dips combined with mild heating on postharvest life and quality of strawberry

Authors: Md. Atiqur Rahman; Most. Mahbuba Begum; Munshi Rashid Ahmad

Addresses: Postharvest Technology Section, Horticulture Research Centre, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701, Bangladesh ' Tuber Crop Research Centre, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701, Bangladesh ' Horticulture Research Centre, BARI, Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701, Bangladesh

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.

Keywords: strawberries; calcium dips; heat treatment; postharvest life; strawberry quality; fruit quality; surface damage; visual appearance; firmness; weight loss; fungal decay; colour changes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPTI.2013.059283

International Journal of Postharvest Technology and Innovation, 2013 Vol.3 No.3, pp.230 - 243

Received: 10 Apr 2012
Accepted: 01 May 2013
Published online: 05 Jul 2014 *

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