Impact Injury at Harvest Promotes Body Rots in ‘Hass’ Avocado Fruit upon Ripening

Melinda L Perkins,Daryl C Joyce,Bo Zhang,Lindy M Coates,Diane Usanase

doi:10.3390/horticulturae6010011

Melinda L Perkins, Daryl C Joyce + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae6010011

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Abstract

Global demand for avocados has risen rapidly in recent years, yet supplying fruit that consistently meets consumer expectations for quality remains a challenge in the industry. Body rots in avocado fruit are a leading cause of consumer dissatisfaction. Anecdotal evidence suggests that body rot development may be promoted by mechanical injury at harvest and packing, despite the fruit being hard, green and mature (i.e., unripe) at these stages. Here, ‘Hass’ avocado fruit, harvested across multiple fruiting seasons from commercial orchards, were subjected to controlled impact from drop heights of 15–60 cm at the time of harvest or packing. With increasing drop height, body rot development at eating ripe stage generally occurred more frequently and produced larger lesions at the impact site and, in some experiments, elsewhere on the fruit. These findings refute a general belief that green mature avocado fruit can tolerate a degree of rough physical handling without ripe fruit quality being compromised. Ideally, best avocado harvesting and packing practice should recognize that unripe fruit must not experience drop heights of 30 cm or higher.

Highlights

Avocado has become an increasingly popular fruit in recent years, with global consumption experiencing annual growth rates of ~4.6% [1]
All experiments in this study indicated that impact injury to unripe ‘Hass’ avocado fruit increased the frequency and severity of body rots subsequently observed at the eating ripe stage
Two Colletotrichum species from the C. gloeosporioides species complex [17] were found to be associated with the impact-induced lesions, suggesting that the rots were more than likely anthracnose

Summary

Introduction

Avocado has become an increasingly popular fruit in recent years, with global consumption experiencing annual growth rates of ~4.6% [1]. Per capita consumption in Australia, for example, increased by 50% in the past five years from 2.5 to 3.8 kg [2]. Providing fruit that consistently meet consumers’ quality expectations remains a challenge in the industry. Inconsistent quality was recently identified by more than half of avocado consumers as a barrier to purchase [3]. 45% of avocado shoppers felt dissatisfied with quality at least some of the time upon cutting the fruit at home [4]. Around one in five ‘Hass’ avocado fruit sampled from

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