International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol.7, No. 19, 154-162
158
all the treatments. It was high in the fruits which were transported with untrimmed stalk. This damage was
lowered by trimming the stalk, keeping fruits in the layers separated by deck plate in the CFB boxes and
wrapping individual fruits with Styrofoam. Wrapping individual fruits with Styrofoam was very much effective to
reduce the damage during transportation and subsequent storage. The fruits kept in ventilated CFB boxes had
slightly lower total damage as compared to unventilated condition. Interaction effect showed lowest total damage
(3.44%) in the fruits which were individually wrapped with styrofoam, transported with ventilation in CFB box,
keeping fruits in the layers separated by deck plate in the boxes compared to other treatments. Styrofoam
wrapped fruits remained healthy and had minimum total damage. Keeping fruits in layers separated with deck
plate minimized vibration damage during transport and thus reduce the total damage. Higher damage and
spoilage loss in untrimmed fruits might be due to physical damage to adjacent fruits resulting higher rate of
respiration, transpiration and microbial infection (Shrestha, 1996; Gautam and Bhattarai, 2012).
Table 7 Combined effect of different packaging methods used for transportation of apple on total postharvest loss (%) of apple after
one month of storage (5±1°C and 95% RH) during 2013-2014
Packaging method PLW (%) Total Damage (%) Spoilage (%) Acceptable Damage (%) Equivalent loss (%) Total Loss (%)
Deck Plate
1.45
7.75
4.65
3.10
0.75
6.85
Without Deck Plate 1.55
13.45
7.65
4.65
1.20
11.45
Styrofoam
1.35
7.05
4.85
2.15
0.55
6.80
Without Styrofoam 1.60
14.10
8.50
5.55
1.40
11.50
Fruit Stalk
1.55
11.55
7.75
3.80
0.95
10.20
Without Fruit Stalk 1.45
9.60
5.60
3.95
1.00
8.10
Ventilation
1.55
10.10
6.15
4.00
1.00
8.70
Without Ventilation 1.40
11.05
7.25
3.75
0.95
9.60
Grand Mean
1.49
10.58
6.99
3.88
1.0
9.14
CV (%)
6.14
12.99
16.02
17.12
17.12
11.03
LSD (0.05)
0.37
1.25
2.02
2.97
0.76
1.27
Keeping fruits individually in styrofoam and in layers separated with deck plate inside the box minimized
vibration damage during transport and thus reduce the spoilage damage. Wilson et al., 1999 reported that
detrimental effect of mechanical injury is not restricted to visual aspects but higher risk of bacterial and fungal
contamination leading to a lower shelf life. Studman (1997) reported that apple bruising can result in product
losses up to 50%, although typically loss levels are in the 10-5% range, depending on consumer awareness.
Bruising is the major postharvest mechanical damage problem during fruit transport and handling. Mechanical
injury accelerates the infection of fungal diseases predominantly gray mold (
Botrytis
) or blue mold (
Penicillium
),
which cannot infect healthy tissue and typically enter through dead or wounded tissue before contaminating the
rest of the fruit. Mechanical injury could be the most important cause of defects and diseases. If mechanical
injury could be avoided to prevent disease and there would be much less loss of fruit (Knee and Miller, 2002).
3.3 Total postharvest loss (%)
Total postharvest loss was calculated based on PLW + spoilage loss + equivalent loss in marketable damaged
fruits (Table 1; Table 3; Table 5; Table 7). Damaged fruits are usually sold in market at 50% lower price.
Equivalent loss was calculated based on 50% price of the damaged fruits. The trend of equivalent loss was same
as spoilage fruits. The result show there is significant effect of stalk trimming, styrofoam, deck plate separation
and ventilation on minimization of total postharvest loss during transportation and storage. The effect of
styrofoam was most effective (6.08%), followed by deck plate separation (6.85%), trimming (8.10%) and
ventilation (9.60%). Interaction effect showed that the equivalent loss was lowest (0.4%) in stalk trimmed fruits
individually wrapped with styrofoam kept in CFB boxes and separated by the deck plate. Total postharvest loss
was lowest (3.8%) in individually styrofoam wrapped trimmed fruits held in ventilated CFB boxes with deck
plate separation followed and was found highest (18.2%) in untrimmed fruits which were kept without ventilation.
Although the effect of ventilation was not much in this study in long run this may be harmful as high temperature
in anaerobic condition favors fermentation in fruits.
