Abstract
Pitaya is a non-climacteric fruit that has white or red flesh with numerous small, black seeds. It has a high moisture content; however, water loss during handling and storage negatively affects the fresh weight, firmness and appearance of the fruit, decreasing market value. Application of compatible postharvest coatings has been shown to benefit postharvest quality of many crops. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of two commercial coatings on weight loss and quality of pitaya during storage. Pitaya fruit were commercially harvested and sorted for uniformity of size and freedom from defects. Fruit were briefly immersed in either a vegetable oil-based coating (VOC; Sta-Fresh® 2981) or a carnauba-based coating (CC; Endura-Fresh™ 6100) according to manufacturer’s recommendations. Fruit immersed in tap water served as a control. Fruit were fan-dried at room temperature for 20 min, then stored at 7 °C with 85% relative humidity (RH) and evaluated for selected physical quality parameters each 5 days during 20 days. After each evaluation, fruit were peeled and frozen for later analysis of soluble solids content (SSC), total titratable acidity (TTA); on day 15 fresh samples were evaluated by an untrained consumer sensory panel. CC prevented exocarp shriveling for 15 days of storage, compared to uncoated pitaya (16.3% area affected); shriveling in VOC was intermediate and not significantly different from the other treatments. Mesocarp firmness remained constant throughout 15 days of storage regardless of treatment. Fruit exocarp h* angle increased slightly by day 20, becoming slightly less red, and there were no negative treatment effects for the other quality factors measured: SSC (11.33%), TTA (0.25%), weight loss (5.5%) or sensory evaluations (appearance, flavor, texture, firmness, and juiciness). After 20 days storage, appearance for fruit from all treatments was rated unacceptable due to development of anthracnose lesions. It was concluded that both CC and VOC maintained quality of pitaya for 15 days at 7 °C and 85% RH by delaying exocarp shriveling.
Highlights
Pitaya originates from Central America and belongs to the genus Hylocereus of the botanical family Cactaceae
After 15 days of storage pitaya fruit coated with either carnauba-based coating (CC) or vegetable oil-based coating (VOC) had no or slight shriveling (0% and 5.0% of surface area, respectively), significantly (p ≤ 0.05) less than that for uncoated pitaya (16.3%) and considered moderate (Table 1)
At day 20, 50% of uncoated pitaya fruit surface showed severe shriveling (Figure 1), while fruit coated with CC or VOC exhibited only 20% or 25% moderate shriveling, respectively
Summary
Pitaya originates from Central America and belongs to the genus Hylocereus of the botanical family Cactaceae. It is a climbing plant with vigorous vines and the scarlet fruit have white or red flesh with numerous small black seeds. Pitaya fruit preserve high water content on the plant by means of the thickness of the exocarp, the presence of scales, and the high mucilage content in the mesocarp [1]. Once harvested Nerd et al [2] reported that pitayas (H. undatus) stored at 65–75% relative humidity (RH) had weight loss of 4.2% after 1 week at 20 ◦C and 5.8% water loss after 3 weeks at 6 ◦C. Water loss affects the fresh weight, firmness, and appearance of the fruit as well as the market price. The high demand and high prices have created interest on the part of growers in subtropical producing regions like Homestead, Florida, to trial this unique crop
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