Investigation of Effects of Different Coatings on the Storage of Fresh Fruit in Pistachio Commercial Cultivars

Investigation of Effects of Different Coatings on the Storage of Fresh Fruit in Pistachio Commercial Cultivars

Abbas Rafieidolatabadi (MSc)¹, Maryam Afrousheh (PhD)^1*, Ali Tajabadipour (PhD)¹, Ali Esmaeiliranjbar (MSc)¹

¹Pistachio Research Center, Horticultural Sciences Research Institute, Agricultural Research,

Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Rafsanjan, Iran

 Received: 25.02.2020   Accepted: 26.05.2020

Abstract

Introduction: Pistachio is one of the major horticultural products of the country, which do not have high storability. Under current conditions, fresh pistachios in Iran are offered in bulk for a limited duration without suitable packaging. The gap between the harvest time and consumption of pistachios significantly decreases their nutritional and economic values under unfavourable conditions. Thus, providing optimal conditions for proper packaging or applying coatings could be one of the appropriate solutions for maintaining the desired quality and increasing the marketability of this economic product of the country.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the effect of various coatings on the quality and storage features of pistachio fresh fruit were examined. This research was carried out as factorial in a completely randomized design with three replications. The experiment was performed on three commercial pistachio cultivars
(Akbari, Kaleh-Ghoochi, and Ahmad-Aghaei) under the effects of temperature
(cold storage at 4 °C and normal room temperature at 24 °C) and different coatings. Coating conditions included wax B131, wax PCFC9265, wax B131+ wax PCFC9265, transparent plastic, the newspaper, the cotton bag, inside the newspaper and then inside a plastic material, inside newspaper and then inside a cotton bag, inside a cotton bag and then inside newspaper, as well as the control. The studied factors consisted of fruit weight loss, shrinkage percentage, and moldiness percentage.

Results: The results showed a significant difference among the commercial cultivars in the quality features (P< 1%). In this study, the highest percentage of moldiness and fruit weight loss under cold storage conditions was related to the Akbari cultivar during the storage duration. Besides, the highest rate of shrinkage was related to the Kaleh-Ghoochi cultivar. According to the results, the best treatments in the storage duration were treatments 4 and 7. Results of the Kaleh-Ghoochi cultivar showed that the percentage of fruit weight loss and the shrinkage percentage were less in treatment 7 than in treatment 4. In the Akbari cultivar, the moldiness percentage in treatment 7 was reduced by half; in addition, the weight loss percentage was 2% higher than in treatment 4. Results from the Ahmad-Aghaei cultivar showed that the weight loss percentage was very low in treatment 7.

Conclusion: In general, the use of treatments 4 and 7 for 39 days under cold storage conditions helped maintain the appearance features of fresh pistachios.

 ►Please cite this article as follows:

Rafieidolatabadi A, Afrousheh M, Tajabadipour A, Esmaeiliranjbar A.Investigation of effects of different coatings on the storage of fresh fruit in pistachio commercial cultivars. Pistachio and Health Journal. 2020; 3 (‌2): 52-65.