About Us 
AIFPA Bulletin Board  
Registration  
Online Magazine 
Information 
 
Search Member  
Research Article

 

EFFECT OF MODIFIED ATMOSPHERIC PACKAGING ON PHYSICAL

 
 

Neelima Garg and B.P. Singh
Division of Postharvest Management
Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture, Rehmakhera
P.O. Kakori, Lucknow- 227107

 
 


Abstract
The present study was undertaken to find out the response of modified atmospheric packaging on physical attributes and surface microbial load of litchi fruits during storage. It was observed that MAP as LDPE film bags having ventilation of 0.5% and above, reduced the percent cumulative loss in weight, browning of skin surface microbial counts. However, higher microbial counts were observed in hermetically sealed bags and 0.25% ventilated poly bag packaging. Though, minimum microbial counts were observed in fruits kept as control but these fruits were of inferior quality due to excessive browning, desiccation and consequently brittleness of skin, which resulted in poor marketability of fruits.

 
 
Materials & Methods
 
 


The litchi fruits were hand picked, washed, surface dried and packed in 1kg capacity LDPE film bags of 200 gauge thickness provided with 0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% ventilation and stored under ambient conditions (30-35degreeC, 40-60%RH ). Various storage attributes i.e. extent of browning, percent CPLW, marketability, microbial spoilage and other quality parameters were determined at 0,2,4 and 6 days of storage according to the methods described by Singh and Narayana (1995).
Aerobic mesophilic surface microbial load of litchi fruits was determined at three distinctive stages i.e. (i) just after harvest, (ii) after washing with water and (iii) on day of storage. For this, 100g of litchi fruits were suspended in 100ml of sterilized water contained in wide mouth sterile glass jars. Five replications were kept for each treatment. After putting litchi fruits, the lid was closed tightly and the jars were shaken well for 1 min. after shaking, one ml of properly diluted surface washing was plated on (i) Rose Bengal Chloramphenicol Agar for isolation and counting of yeasts and moulds and (ii) on Actidione Agar for bacteria (Collin and Lyne, 1985). Both types of media plates were incubated at 30+-2degreeC for 72 hr and the average number of microbial colonies were counted as Colony Forming Units (CFU) per g litchi fruit and log CFU was determined accordingly. Predominant yeasts, moulds and bacteria were identified as per methods described by Collin and Lyne (1985).

 
 
(For full articles please refer to Indian Food Packer Magazine)