Author:
SINGH AJIT KUMAR,SETHI SHRUTI,ASREY RAM,KUMAR RAJU
Abstract
The present study was carried out at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during 2021–2023 to study the effect of postharvest hot water treatment (HWT) on the nutritional quality attributes of apple [Malus × domestica Borkh.] cv. Royal Delicious. Apple fruits were exposed to hot water at 48, 50, 52 and 54°C for 2, 3, 4 and 5 min. Following the treatment, the fruits were cold stored (2±1°C, 90–95% relative humidity) for 90 days and evaluated for quality changes at every 15 days interval. Our results revealed that HWT of apple fruits at 48°C and 50°C were best for optimum retention of nutritional quality of apple fruits. Exposure of fruits to HWT at 48°C/5 min and 50°C/2 min resulted in least (0.73%, 0.75%) loss of ascorbic acid and anthocyanin content (0.10%, 0.21%), respectively as compared to other temperature-time combinations. At the end of a three month storage period, under control treatment, fruits exhibited 9.56% reduction of antioxidant (AOX) activity in comparison to 0.17–2.21% reduction in HWT apples. The maximum loss in quality attributes was noticed at highest temperature-time exposure (54°C/5 min). Thus, it was observed that the right combination of temperature and time for HWT is crucial to maintain fruit quality attributes without compromising nutritional value.
Publisher
Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture
Subject
Agronomy and Crop Science
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