Evaluation of Different Packaging Materials on Shelf Life and Quality of Minimally Processed Pomegranate Arils (Punica Granatum L.)

Abstract

Different packaging materials viz., Poly propylene (PP), Low density Polyethylene (LDPE), High density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Metallized polyester (MP) were used for packaging minimally processed pomegranate arils and were evaluated for shelf life and quality parameters both under cold storage conditions (5±1o C) and room temperature(25±1o C). Irrespective of the storage conditions, among the different packaging materials High Density Polyethylene 40% microns without perforations is found to be the best in terms of extending the shelf life up to 22.66 days in cold storage and 4.33 days at room temperature conditions. The same treatment i.e T6 also showed superior results pertaining to quality parameters (TSS, Acidity, Brix-acid ratio, sugars ) retaining highest TSS, Brix- acid ratio and sugars at different days interval and lowest titrable acidity over the other treatments followed by the treatment T8 (Metalized polyester 40% microns without perforations under both the storage conditions.