Effect of Controlled Atmospheres with Low Oxygen Levels on Extended Storage of Guava Fruit (Psidium guajava L. ‘Pedro Sato’)

Abstract

<jats:p>The effects of controlled atmospheres (CAs) containing different levels of oxygen (air, 21, 15, 10, 5, and 1 kPa) were investigated during cold storage of ‘Pedro Sato’ guava at 12.5 °C for 28 days. Atmospheres with lower O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> concentrations (1 and 5 kPa) significantly reduced respiratory rates and delayed the ripening process. This was confirmed by maintenance of fruit green color, higher total soluble, and reducing sugar contents. The control fruits and those stored in elevated oxygen concentrations (21 kPa) presented a climacteric peak. However, the peak was not observed for fruit maintained in atmospheres containing 1, 5, 10, and 15 kPa O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>. After transferring the fruits from CA to ambient storage, they ripened normally in just 2 d without presenting any low O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> injury symptoms, even from the lowest oxygen concentrations (1 and 5 kPa O<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>). This supports the use of low-oxygen atmospheres for extended storage of ‘Pedro Sato’ guava fruit.</jats:p>

Quality of guava (Psidium guajava L. cv. Pedro Sato) fruit stored in low-O2 controlled atmospheres is negatively affected by increasing levels of CO2

“…to the atmospheres with low O 2 already caused an accentuate reduction in the respiration rate of 'Pedro Sato' guavas (Teixeira and Durigan, 2010). Similar effects were reported by Broughton and Leong (1979), Kader (1986), Castro and Sigrist (1988), Pal and Buescher (1993), Singh and Pal (2008) and Teixeira and Durigan (2010) in guavas stored in CA systems and in other fruit such as the cherimoya (Palma et al, 1993), apple (Saquet and Streif, 2002) and 'Tommy Atkins' mangos (Bender et al, 2000). It is worth to note Fig.…”

“…Fruit appearance was evaluated according to a grading scale proposed by Teixeira and Durigan (2010), as follow: 5, excellent; 4, very good; 3, acceptable; 2, bad; 1, extremely bad. This evaluation was carried out immediately after the fruits were removed from CA storage (0, 14 and 28 days).…”

“…The use of controlled atmosphere (CA) has been recommended to increase the postharvest shelf life of many fruit (Kader, 1986), and few studies have been conducted to evaluate the effects of CA storage on guavas (Broughton and Leong, 1979;Castro and Sigrist, 1988;Singh and Pal, 2008;Teixeira and Durigan, 2010). Kader (2003) recommended atmospheres containing 2-5% oxygen (O 2 ) and 0-1% carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) for guavas stored at 5-15 • C. Other recommendations included lower levels of O 2 and higher levels of CO 2 , based on the evidence that these fruits do not tolerate CO 2 concentrations higher than 10% (Broughton and Leong, 1979).…”

“…Kader (2003) recommended atmospheres containing 2-5% oxygen (O 2 ) and 0-1% carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) for guavas stored at 5-15 • C. Other recommendations included lower levels of O 2 and higher levels of CO 2 , based on the evidence that these fruits do not tolerate CO 2 concentrations higher than 10% (Broughton and Leong, 1979). The beneficial effects of CA with low O 2 and/or high CO 2 concentrations on the postharvest shelf life of guavas include reduction in respiration rates, ethylene production (Singh and Pal, 2008;Teixeira and Durigan, 2010), colour change, and softening (Teixeira and Durigan, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2015.07.022 0925-5214/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 2010), retention of vitamins, sugars and organic acids, the inhibition of some physiological disorders (Singh and Pal, 2008), and diseases (Teixeira et al, 2007).…”

“…The beneficial effects of CA with low O 2 and/or high CO 2 concentrations on the postharvest shelf life of guavas include reduction in respiration rates, ethylene production (Singh and Pal, 2008;Teixeira and Durigan, 2010), colour change, and softening (Teixeira and Durigan, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2015.07.022 0925-5214/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 2010), retention of vitamins, sugars and organic acids, the inhibition of some physiological disorders (Singh and Pal, 2008), and diseases (Teixeira et al, 2007).…”