Extension of the Storage Life of Plums (Prunus Salicina) Using Controlled Atmosphere Shipping

Abstract

South Africa is an important supplier of stone fruit to the northern hemisphere in the months of November to March. The voyage by sea to the main markets in the UK and Continental Europe necessitates production of cultivars that are able to maintain an acceptable eating quality for a period of at least four weeks from the time of harvest. Four Japanese plum (Prunus salicina) cultivars were examined with the view to extend their storage life under regular atmosphere (RA) conditions at -0.5°C following either RA or controlled atmosphere (CA) shipping, using either the commercial dual temperature (-0.5°C, 7.5°C, -0.5°C) or a single high temperature (7.5°C) regime. The cultivars included the locally bred 'Sapphire', 'Songold' and 'Laetitia' as well as 'Angeleno' which is well known in plum producing countries internationally.Storage life of all four cultivars could be extended for an additional two to three weeks under RA conditions at -0.5°C without adverse effects on quality, provided that CA was applied during the shipping phase, either under the dual or single high temperature regimes. Fruit firmness was best retained under CA (dual temperature) conditions. These fruit also showed the lowest respiration rates, ethylene production rates and internal ethylene content. Skin colour development was better under single high than under dual temperature conditions, and also better under RA than CA shipping.

Storage of Laetitia plums (Prunus salicina) under controlled atmosphere conditions

“…Similar results were obtained in other studies with 'Sapphire', 'Songold', 'Laetitia' and 'Stanley' plums (Maré et al, 2005;Golias et al, 2010). Among the CA conditions evaluated, the higher values obtained for flesh firmness after removal from the chamber were 2 kPa O 2 + 5 kPa CO 2 , 1 kPa O 2 + 5 kPa CO 2 and 1 kPa O 2 + 3 kPa CO 2 .…”

“…Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License physicochemical attributes (Streif, 1995;Maré et al, 2005;Manganaris et al, 2008). Van de Geijn (1993) recommends the temperature of 0 o C and CA condition of 3 kPa O 2 and 7 kPa CO 2 for European plums.…”

Controlled and modified atmospheres influence chilling injury, fruit quality and antioxidative system of Japanese plums (Prunus salicina Lindell)

“…The loss of flesh firmness during the first 5 weeks of cold storage was to the extent of 60% in normal air, 35% in CA‐1 (1% O 2 + 3% CO 2 ), 47% in CA‐2 (1% O 2 + 3% CO 2 ) and 50% in MAP; these losses further increased to, respectively, 66%, 45%, 50% and 51% after 8 weeks of storage. The reduction in O 2 levels and increase in CO 2 concentrations in storage atmospheres might have reduced the rates of respiration and ethylene production in ‘Blackamber’ plums as reported for ‘Songold’ and ‘Angeleno’ plums (Maré et al ., ). Ethylene is directly involved in fruit softening through enhanced activities of cell wall hydrolysing enzymes in plums (Khan & Singh, ).…”

“…The fruits stored in CA for 5 and 8 weeks were significantly firmer than those stored in normal air or MAP even after 6 days at 21 ± 1 °C. This could possibly be related to retarded fruit ripening because of the residual effects of CA storage (Maré et al ., ). Table shows the changes in SSC, TA and SSC/TA of fruit during cold storage in different atmospheres.…”

“…Low‐temperature storage supplemented with controlled/modified atmospheres (CA/MA) containing low O 2 and high CO 2 has been known to alleviate certain physiological disorders in fruits including CI (Prange & DeLong, ). The beneficial effects of CA/MA (1–5% O 2 and 2.5–10% CO 2 at near 0 °C) on fruit quality and alleviation of CI in European and Japanese plums have been reported (Smith, ; Ke et al ., ; Maré et al ., ; Menniti et al ., ). In addition to storage, CA containers are currently being used worldwide for long‐distance transportation of fruits such as mango, banana, kiwifruit and plum.…”