Postharvest life and quality of ‘Snow Queen’ nectarine (Prunus persica var. nucipersica) as influenced by edible coatings during cold storage

Abstract

Nectarine is an important stone fruit with a characteristic flavour and loaded with immense nutrients and antioxidants. Apart from its functional sustenance’s and nutritional abundance, smooth and glossy appeal of nectarine makes it more preferred fruit than peaches. Like peaches, its postharvest life is only 3–4 days under ambient and about 15–18 days under low-temperature storage. Due to unfamiliarity among the growers, the postharvest management practices are not standardized for this crop which causes huge postharvest losses. Hence, we carried out this study with an expectation to enhance the shelf life of ‘Snow Queen’ nectarine fruits by hydrocolloid-based edible coatings which are considered as safe for human consumption. Fruits were coated with carboxy methylcellulose (CMC 1 and 1.5%) and gum Arabica (GA 8, 10 and 12%), dried and packed in corrugated fibre board (CFB) boxes. The packed fruits were transported to Delhi and stored under low-temperature storage conditions (1 ± 1 °C and 85–90% relative humidity) in the laboratory. The observations on various biochemical attributes were recorded at weekly interval. Our results revealed that among the various edible coatings, 1% CMC and 10% GA were found to be effective in reducing the physiological loss in weight (PLW) and maintaining higher total phenolics, anthocyanin content, ascorbic acid content and total antioxidant activity. These treatments also kept the pectin methylesterase (PME) activity under control and thereby extended the shelf life of ‘Snow Queen’ fruits. Hence, it can be concluded that control fruits have storage life of 14 days while those coated with 1% CMC and 10% GA had 21 days of storage life within standard permissible limits of physiological loss in weight (PLW) for stone fruits.