Published
2023-06-20
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Influence of temperature on postharvest quality of peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] cv. Great Jarillo under high tropical conditions

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.6262
Section
Área Agrícola
Fabian Amaya Martin Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia
Yuli Deaquiz Oyola Fundación Universitaria Juan de Castellanos

Contextualization: The peach is a highly perishable product due to its climacteric-type respiratory pattern and high ethylene production, leading to accelerated deterioration of its organoleptic quality after being harvested and rapid senescence. Currently, various techniques are applied to delay the changes that accompany the post-harvest ripening process, including refrigeration, which is one of the most used tools to prolong the quality of highly oxidizable fruits and increase their durability in time.

Knowledge gap: The lack of knowledge of the characteristics expressed with the ripening of peach fruits, specifically of the Gran Jarillo cultivar and the lack of related studies and under the conditions of the high tropics, limits producers from making decisions regarding the technique storage efficiency, to avoid production losses after harvest.

Purpose: This study aimed to elucidate the effect of different storage temperatures on the quality parameters of peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] cv. Gran Jarillo after the harvest.

Methodology: The fruits were stored at room temperature (T1: 17 °C), a control at room temperature with a cover of biopolymers (T2: 17 °C plus wax) and low temperature (T3: 2 °C) for 22 days. The results were analyzed with a completely randomized design with four repetitions on days 0, 7, 14 and 22.

Results and conclusions: T3 (2 °C) maintained a higher firmness and a lower respiratory rate, a lower percentage of weight loss, a lower concentration of titratable soluble solids (TSS), a lower maturity ratio (SST/ATT), and a higher concentration of total titratable acids (ATT). For its part, the epidermis is color index (CI) the epidermis increased during maturation in the three treatments, mainly in T1. In the case of durability over time, T3 was maintained until day 22, while the other treatments lost their organoleptic quality at 14 days. This allowed to concluding that the fruits stored at low temperatures delayed their ripening process compared to those stored at room temperature.