Effect of packaging material and postharvest calcium treatment on weight loss, decay and biochemical quality of strawberry fruits during storage

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) fruits are highly perishable which lose their marketability within a short period of time, resulting in considerable loss of fruits after harvest. In present study, the packaging materials treatment i.e. polypropylene terephthalate (PET) Punnet and High density polythene (HDPE) crates and calcium compounds (CaCl2 and Ca(No3)2) were examined for the storability and biochemical quality of strawberry (cv. Winter Down) fruits in cold condition (3±1 °C) in comparison to the untreated control fruit in ambient storage for 3, 6 and 8 days storage period. Results revealed that physiological loss in weight (PLW) and fruit decay increased with the advancement of the storage period irrespective of the treatments. Fruits treated with CaCl2 (2%), packed in PET Punnets and stored in cold condition (3±1 °C) showed significantly minimum PLW (6.55, 11.12 and 15 34 %) and fruit decay (7.29, 17.71 and 34.38 %) at 3, 6 and 8 days storage, respectively. Non-treated control fruits at ambient conditions could not maintain their marketability even 3 days of storage and showed relatively high decay losses (25.00, 62.21 and 91.67 % at 3, 6 and 8 days of storage, respectively). Packaging and calcium treatment did not affect the fruit total soluble solids (TSS) and total sugars but was found effective to slow down the decrease of ascorbic acid and acidity contents of the fruit during storage. PET Punnets packaged fruits treated with CaCl2 (2%) under cold conditions retained better shelf-life with better biochemical quality of fruits during storage while untreated control fruits deteriorated rapidly.