Effect of dropping height during fruit Handling on the quality of selected avocado (persea Americana miller) cultivars

Abstract

Avocado fruit experiences different problem from that of most other fruits, because ripe avocado fruits are very perishable. Postharvest mishandling such as mechanical damage reduced the annual yield of avocado fruit. Fruit quality is adversely affected by bruise damage. One of qualitative aspects is the detrimental effect of impact damage. Losses from postharvest avocado damage are severe in Ethiopia. The dropping height of fruit after harvest to reduce impact damage has been increasingly curtailed by mishandling of fruits at the whole sale, the buyer and the consumer lack of awareness how to handle the fruits, negative public perception regarding the safety of fruit storage and consequent restrictions on selecting cultivars. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of different dropping heights during handling on the Quality of Selected Avocado Cultivars during the storage life of Avocado fruit and to reduce postharvest losses by controlling bruise damage extent. In this research, a stationary device was developed to study fruit mechanical damage. Bruise area was determined by one of impact characteristics (impact energy of the dropping height) and then impact damage was tested in three different dropping heights. The experiment was focused on determining the effect of dropping height on three different avocado cultivars and it was carried out by using impact characteristics method. The treatments consisted of dropping heights (control, 0.79 and 1.58m). Avocado fruits were subjected to impact by means of a stationary device (pole) by allowing free fall to the ground surface and then stored at room temperature. The experimental design for this study was a 3x3 factorial design arranged in complete randomized design (CRD). The experiment consisted of two factors, three avocado cultivars (Ettinger, Fuerte and Pinkerton), and three different Dropping heights (control, 0.79 and 1.58m) with three replications. Response measurements collected were physiological weight loss (%), pulp to peel ratio (g), firmness(Kgf), total soluble solid (°Brix), titratable acidity (%), dry matter (%),pH(%) , decay/rotting percentage(%),time to ripen(days),crude fat determination(%),peel color(chroma value), storage life (days) and external bruise area(mm). All Dropping heights and cultivar used for this experiment had significant (p<0.05%) effects on most of physico- chemical characteristics evaluated. But had no significant effect on dry matter content from all Dropping height used but not cultivar, Pinkerton Avocado cultivar showed the minimum Dry matter percentage (21.80 %) compared with the other treatments 18 days after storage. It can thus be concluded that among the Dropping height and cultivar used, Bruising can occur at any point from harvesting through to sale and can only be minimized with careful handling that bruise damage of avocado fruit will be reduced by decreasing the dropping heights and selecting the cultivar of the fruits. Pinkerton cultivar at control, 0.79 and 1.58m dropping height proved to be effective during handling test. Dropping at the control reduced the development of mechanical damage, maintained the freshness of the avocado fruits and increased shelf life of Ettinger, Fuerte fruits for up to 18 and 25 days without affecting the physico-chemical properties. Thus, further research efforts are needed to integrate the current findings to be used in integrated damage management in the near future.