Quality Retention of Litchi (Litchi Chinensis Sonn.) by Using Polypropylene Bag and Low Temperature

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to observe the postharvest behaviors of litchi for using low temperature (4 °C) and polypropylene (PP) bags of different thickness. The two-factor experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications. Total 8 treatments are implemented in this study. The experiment consisted of two factors: Factor A: Temperature (T1: Ambient temperature, T2: 4ºC temperature) and Factor B: Polypropylene bag (P1: unwrapped, P2: 50µ PP bag, P3: 75µ PP bag, P4: 100µ PP bag. In case of low temperature (4 °C), litchi retained its 50% color at 10th days of storage, highest shelf life (21.33 days), highest moister content (83.3%) & highest amount of vitamin C (35.61 mg/100g) were found at 3rd day of storage. In case of different thickness of polypropylene bags, litchi kept in 75µ PP bags retained its 100% color up to 4th day of storage, shelf life (16.34 days), maximum moister content (83.14%) & maximum amount of vitamin C (35.78 mg/100g) were found at 3rd day of storage. It can be possible to save a large amount of litchi fruits every year from postharvest decay by using low temperature (4 °C) and 75µ PP bag.