A model of evaporative cooling storage system was designed to increase potato shelf life for improving potato storage system. Two cultivars of potato 'Diamant' (100 gm and 51 gm per tuber) and 'LalPakri (23 gm and 11 gm per tuber) were placed on four shelves of the bin. Each shelf holds 240 kg of potato from 23 march 2013 to December 2013. Potato spoilage, sprouting, shrinkage, moisture content, vitamin C and total sugar content of potato were measured. Experimental results revealed that potato spoilage progressively increased from April to November and sprouting of potato gradually increased from June to October, but stopped in November. The cumulative spoilage and sprouting were much lower in the improved bin compared to traditional farmer's practices. Shrinkage of potato was found higher in farmer's practice than that of storage bin from October to November. Moisture content of potato was higher during May and reduced gradually to the lowest value during November in both of practices. No significant difference was found in two practices on vitamin-C content. Sugar content of 'Diamant; potato was lower in the storage bin during November. According to data analysis and regression curve storage bin model was more appropriate for both cultivars than farmer practice and significantly more appropriate for 'LalPakri' potato.
This study was designed to evaluate the use of non‐chlorine sanitizer in enhancing quality, microbial safety, and increased shelf life of carrots under various low‐cost packaging and storage at commercial cold storage. The study results revealed that irrespective of packaging conditions, none of the washed carrots stored in a commercial cold storage for six months was found cross the upper threshold microbial limit (7.0 log CFU/g) compared to non‐washed sample and thus acceptable in microbial quality. Among the packaging and washing treatment, waste shell powder (WSP) washed carrots kept in a plastic crate or CFB carton packaged showed better microbial quality, lower decay and weight loss, higher firmness, and acceptable color values than chlorine washed and non‐washed carrots under cold storage condition for 6 months. Although, the overall nutritional quality of 6‐months stored carrots decreased significantly, but WSP washed carrots showed relatively equal or higher phytochemicals than that of chlorine water‐washed carrots.
Practical applications
The postharvest losses of horticultural products justify the use of preservation techniques and processing not only adds value to the products, but also makes the products more convenient to the consumers. In this study we find, simple changes in packaging (from Jute sack package to plastic crate packages) resulted in better quality carrots (less damage/decay) than that of existing storage practices. Therefore, this study results demonstrated that washing matured raw carrots with non‐chlorine sanitizer and packaged in the plastic crate was able to provide safe and quality carrots after holding 6 months at cold storage.
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