Effect of calcium chloride and calcium lactate on shelf life extension of sweet orange

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of calcium chloride and calcium lactate coating on sweet orange. The fruits were treated with different concentration of calcium chloride and calcium lactate T0 was use as control, T1 with 1% calcium chloride coating, T2 with 1.5% calcium chloride coating, T3 with 2% calcium chloride coating, T4 with 1% calcium lactate coating, T5 with 1.5% calcium lactate coating and T6 with 2% calcium lactate coating. Sweet oranges were stored for 35 days and analyzed after every 7 days during storage period. The stored samples were checked organoleptically for color, texture, taste, decay index and the overall acceptability and analyzed physicochemically for % acidity, total soluble solids (TSS), pH, ascorbic acid, firmness and weight loss. An increase was noticed in physicochemical attributes which includes the increase of TSS from 6.07 to 9.64°brix, the weight loss from 0 to 28.52%, the pH from 3.80 to 4.17 and the decay index from 0 to 30.83%. A decrease was noticed in the ascorbic acid from 76.04 to 47.98mg/100g, titratable acidity from 2.92 to 2.12%, and the firmness from 82.15 to 55.90kg/cm 2. During the storage all organoleptic attributes decreased. The texture decreased from 8.60 to 5.80, the color from 8.72 to 5.51, the taste from 8.62 to 5.71and the overall acceptability decreased from 8.62 to 5.85. From this research, it is reported that sample T3 with 2% calcium chloride followed by the T2 with 1.5% CaCl2 was the best sample on the basis of the organoleptic and physicochemical attributes.