High-temperature Conditioning Reduces Hot Water Treatment Injury of `Kensington Pride' Mango Fruit

Abstract

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) fruit can be injured by heat disinfestation protocols imposed to kill insects. We determined if mango fruit have the capacity to acclimate, thereby becoming more tolerant of heat disinfestation treatments. Conditioned `Kensington Pride' mango fruit (7-hour heating-up period to a 37C core temperature maintained for ≤12 hours) showed less pulp injury on ripening following hot water treatment (1.5 hours for previously conditioned fruit to 2 hours for fruit not previously conditioned) than fruit not conditioned before hot water treatment. During treatment, the core reached 47C and was maintained for 25 minutes. Extending the conditioning period by ≤12 hours beyond the 7-hour heating-up period (total of 19 hours) gave no additional benefit. Conditioning did not consistently reduce peel injury that was hot water treatment-induced as indicated by irreversible loss of chlorophyll variable fluorescence.