Impact of sulphur dioxide generating pads and liners on enhancing market acceptability and post-harvest life of grapes

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Aim: To identify most suitable packaging material combination consisting of sulphur dioxide (SO2) generating pads for cold storage of grapes cv. Perletteto achieve longer storage life. Methodology: Treatments included packing of grape bunches in low density polyethylene (LDPE) film with single sheet of SO2 generating pad, LDPE with double sheet of SO2 generating and LDPE without SO2 generating pad and all these were further placed in Corrugated Fibre Board (CFB) boxes. In case of control, fruits were kept in CFB lined with newspaper only.? Results: The use of SO2 pads on berries of Perlette grapes stored under varying cold storage environments with different packaging showed significant improvements in post-harvest life. LDPE packaging with single and double sheet of SO2 generating pad expressed the lowest berry shattering and spoilage. The said combination had profound impact on prevention of stem browning of bunches. Physiological loss of weight of stored berries was minimum for LDPE packaging with single sheet of SO2 generating pads (1.56%). No differences were observed among the treatments with respect to other physico-chemical evaluations. Interpretation: The present investigations implicated that the detrimental effects on physico-chemical attributes of grape berries under cold storage can be lessened by synergistic utilization of single sheet of sulphur dioxide generating pads and low-density poly-ethylene packaging.