Abstract
Tropical fruits should be subjected to precooling after harvest to enhance the quality and shelf life of the produce. Among all cooling techniques, hydro-cooling is the fastest and cheapest technique for fruits. Antimicrobial natural extract are gaining lot of attention as they can improve quality and shelf life of fruits. The purpose of the present study was to apply Response surface methodology (RSM) to search for the best conditions of Hydro-cooling system to increase the storage life of Sapota. The parameters which affect cooling rate the most were identified as Cooling medium temperature (13, 18 and 20 °C), Fruit size (0.00454, 0.00567 and 0.00662 m) and Cooling medium flow rate (0.83, 1.66 and 4.16 ml/s) at which the produce is stored and cooling rate indirectly effected shelf life of the produce. Based on General factorial design of RSM shelf life (number of days) as a response, 27 (33) treatments were conducted. Optimum storage conditions for maximizing the shelf life were identified as cooling medium temperature (13 °C), fruit size (0.00454 m) and cooling medium flow rate (0.83 ml/s). Under this optimum condition, the predicted shelf life of the stored Sapota and the experimental results gave close values of less than 1.03%. The number of days of shelf life extended for Sapota is 20 days. Physio-chemical properties and microbial quality of stored Sapota were also evaluated. Percentage loss in weight was found to be maximum for control sample (13%), whereas minimum for the cooled sample (0.04–0.123%). Total Soluble solids (TSS) increased about 5–7% for control, but whereas for cooled Sapota, it was not more than 1–2%. Time taken for cooling different sized fruits at 13 °C, 18 °C and 20 °C was 25 min, 35 min and 55 min, respectively. The microbial growth was also retarded due to proper cooling of harvested fruits with antimicrobial extract.
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