Postharvest quality of fresh murici fruits as a function of storage and packing

Abstract

Murici is a typical Brazilian Savanna fruit widely consumed by local communities. This study aimed to evaluate the postharvest quality of murici fruits as a function of storage and packing. The experiment followed a triple factorial scheme (3 x 2 x 9), evaluating three packing materials (polypropylene, low-density polyethylene and nylon/polyethylene), two atmosphere conditions (vacuum and non-vacuum) and 9 days of analysis (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 days). The fruits were evaluated for fresh weight loss, firmness, total chlorophyll, total extractable polyphenols and total antioxidant activity. As for refrigeration, the vacuum treatments showed a lower fresh weight loss for fruits packed with nylon or polypropylene. Firmness decreased along the experiment, regardless of packing and atmosphere condition. The antioxidant activity increased up to the end of storage in all the treatments. Both the polypropylene and nylon/polyethylene under vacuum packing showed the best results for maintaining the murici quality.