The Effect of Acetaldehyde Vapor and Hot Water Postharvest Treatments on Quality and Reducing Chilling Injury of Persimmon ’Costata’ Fruits

AN EXPERIMENT with different postharvest treatments consisting in dipping in hot water at (45, 55, 60^◦C⁾ for 15min. and fruits exposed to acetaldehyde vapor (10ml/kg fruits) carried out during 2013 and 2014 seasons on’ Costatat’ persimmon fruits are given in this paper. In all treatments  the fruits were stored at 0^◦C and  90% relative humidity (RH)to reduce chilling injury and improving eating quality of the fruits under test were determined for chilling injury percentage, weight loss, peel color, firmness, soluble solids content (SSC) , titratable acidity percentage and tannins content. Results indicate that during the cold storage periods weight loss, chilling injury and SSC percentage increase while firmness, acidity, color and tannins content decreasing.
They also showed that fruits treated with acetaldehyde vapor(10ml/kg fruits)  and hot water at 55^◦Cgave the highest values of lightness, fruit firmness, soluble solid content and lowest value of hue angle (high density of orange color), weight loss percentage, chilling injury% and titratable acidity % without significant differences between the two treatments.