QUALITY RETENTION OF LITCHI (LITCHI CHINENSIS SONN.) BY USING POLYPROPYLENE BAG AND LOW TEMPERATURE

This experiment was conducted to observe the postharvest behaviors of litchi for using low temperature (4 °C) and polypropylene (PP) bags of different thickness. The two-factor experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications. Total 8 treatments are implemented in this study. The experiment consisted of two factors: Factor A: Temperature (T1: Ambient temperature, T2: 4ºC temperature) and Factor B: Polypropylene bag (P1: unwrapped, P2: 50µ PP bag, P3: 75µ PP bag, P4: 100µ PP bag. In case of low temperature (4 °C), litchi retained its 50% color at 10th days of storage, highest shelf life (21.33 days), highest moister content (83.3%) & highest amount of vitamin C (35.61 mg/100g) were found at 3rd day of storage. In case of different thickness of polypropylene bags, litchi kept in 75µ PP bags retained its 100% color up to 4th day of storage, shelf life (16.34 days), maximum moister content (83.14%) & maximum amount of vitamin C (35.78 mg/100g) were found at 3rd day of storage. It can be possible to save a large amount of litchi fruits every year from postharvest decay by using low temperature (4 °C) and 75µ PP bag.