Synergy of 1-MCP and hypobaric treatments prevent fermented flavour and improve consumers' acceptability of 'Shughri' pear.

Abstract

Development of fermented flavour during storage reduces acceptability of Shughri pear. Therefore, the current study was designed to investigate the combined effect of 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and hypobaric treatment on stability of Shughri pear during 120days of storage. Fruit were treated individually or combinedly with 25, 50, and 75 kilo pascal hypobaric treatments for 4h and 1-MCP (0.3 μLL-1 and 0.6 μLL-1) for 24h, whereas control received no treatment. The pears were stored for 120days at (0 ± 1°C, 85 ± 5% RH), and were evaluated after every 30days. After cold storage, pears were shifted to simulated retail conditions (20 ± 3°C, 65 ± 5% RH). The combination of 25kPa + 0.6 μLL-1 1-MCP significantly (P ≤ 0.05) delayed fruit ripening, reduced Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), and Pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) activities, maintained the quality, and led to higher consumers' acceptability of the pear followed by 50kPa + 0.6 μLL-1 and 25kPa + 0.3 μLL-1. The control fruit were marketable for a week after storage with relatively less acceptability due to fermented flavour compared to treated fruit, marketable for more than two weeks. Among all the treatments, the synergy of 1-MCP and hypobaric treatment 25kPa + 0.6 μLL-1 1-MCP improved the postharvest storage life and quality parameters, preventing development of fermented flavour in the pears. The experiment was conducted on pilot scale, for commercial application, the results of this study should be validated on large scale.