POST HARVEST TREATMENTS

Presented to Mam SEHRISH HUSSAIN

1 Presented by Group 1
2 Group Members

 Qurah-tul-ain 103 (Coating)

 Sawera Sattar 121 (De-greening)
 Khadija Ashiq 116 (VHT)
 Rafia Saddiqe 118 (HWT)
 Sadia Arshad 139 (Curing)
3
Road Map

 Post harvest treatments

Coating
Curing
Hot water treatments
Vapor heat treatment
De-greening
4
Post Harvest Treatments

 Treatments which applied to agricultural commodities

after harvest for the purpose of
 Preservation
 Conservation
 Quality control
 Storage
 Distribution
5
Post Harvest Treatments Includes

1. Coating
2. Curing
3. Hot water treatment
4. Vapor heat treatment
5. De-greening
6
Coating
 Thin layer of material which can be consumed, provide
barrier to oxygen, external microbes, salute movement for
food
 In edible coating a semipermeable barrier provided
7
Aims

 To increase Shelf life by decreasing

 Moisture
 Salute migration
 Gas exchange
 Oxidative reaction rate
 Respiration
 Physiological disorder on fresh cut fruits
8 Properties

 Good barrier properties

 Improve appearance, mechanical handling
 Provide protective covering to fruits, vegetable
 Enhance shelf life
 Enhance nutritional components of fruits and vegetables
 Applied on different fruits, vegetables
9 Examples

 Fruits
 Orange,apple,grapefruit,cherries,papaya,lemon,strawbe
rry,mango and peach
 Vegetable
 Tomato, cucumber,capsicum,carrots
10
Classification

 Edible coatings mainly divided into three classes

Hydrocolloids Lipids Composites

Fatty acids, Protein/protein,

Polysaccharide,protein,
Acryl glycerides, Polysaccharide/protein,
alginate
waxes Lipid/ polysaccharides
11 1. Hydrocolloids

 Originated from animals, vegetables, microbial, synthetic

hydrophillic polymers
 Have hydroxyl group polyelectrolytes
 Alginate, carrageenan, pectin, carboxymetylcellulose,
xanthin gum, gum Arabic
 Partially, completely dissolved in water
12 Conti…

 To increase viscosity of aqueous phase

 Act as emulsifier, stabilizer
 Fat replacer
 Polysaccharide, protein based
13
a) Polysaccharide Based Coating

 Chitosan, Starch, Alginate, Cellulose, carrageenan, gellan

gum
 Poor moisture barrier
 Water soluble
 Low oxygen permeability
 Improve mechanical handling
 Additive carrying capacity
14 b) Protein Based Coating

 Derived from animal and plant

 Plant based coating
 Soy protein, gluten, zein
 Animal protein
 Whey protein, casein, egg albumin, collagen
15 Conti…

 Not effective barrier for moisture

 Execellent barrier for aroma ,oil, oxygen
 Give strength
 Good mechanical and organoleptical properties
16
17 2. Lipid Based Coating

 Provide shiny and glossy appearance to food

 Common lipid base coating
 Carnauba wax, bees wax, paraffin wax, mineral or
vegetable oil
 Good water and moisture barrier
18 Conti…

 Tough to apply due to greasiness and thickness

 Coating material
 Waxes
 Fatty acid and alcohol
19 3. Composite Based coating

 Enhance Mechanical and moisture barrier and gas barrier

capacity
 Have two categories
 Bi-layer composites
 Conglomerates
20 Applying Methods

i. Dipping
ii. Brushing
iii. Extrusion
iv. Spraying
v. Solvent casting
21
22
23

Spraying
24
25 Disadvantage

 Thick coating prohibit oxygen exchange

 Cause off-flavor development
 Increase microbial growth
26 De-greening

 Process of removing green color from the skin of fruit

after harvest
 Ethylene gas is used
 Only mature fruits are de-greened
 Level of sugar and acids not affect
 Example :citrus fruit
27 Conti…

 De-greening Practice Done to make

 The fruit color change
 Make the fruit for marketing season
 The practice of de-greening developed 100 years ago
Success is dependent on
 Initial peel color
 Temperature
 Duration of exposure
28
De-greening atmosphere

 Ethylene Degreening
 Temperature
 Humidity
 Air circulation
 Ventilation and atmospheric composition
29 Ethylene Degreening

 Results in destruction of chlorophyll

 Development of carotenoids
 Stimulate respiration
 Stimulate volatile production
 5 ppm or lower concentration used
30 Conti…

 Degreen fruits
 Early season navel oranges
 Lemons
 Mandarins
31 Navel Oranges

 Seedless
 Easy to peel
 Sweeter in taste
 Required:
 1-5 ppm ethylene
 68-70 °F temperature
 90-95% RH
32 De-greening of lemon

 Dessert lemon harvested in August - October

 Coastal lemons on a more limited basis
33 Degreening of Mandarins

 Harvested in early season

 Harvested before onest cool temperatures
34 Factors Affecting degreening

 Harvest the fully mature fruit at the beginning of natural

degreening
 Immature fruit may be poorly colored
 Natural color break needs to have been initiated at 7-13 ᴼC
night Temperature
35
Humidity

 Low R.H may result in soft fruit and loss of size

 Very low humidity may inhibit process
 Best result with 90-95 percent
36
Temperature

 Temperature varies with growing region

 Optimum degreening temperature for citrus is 25ºC
 High temperature inhibit carotenoids pigment (30 ºC)
37 Air circulation

 Good air circulation is required:

 To equalize conditions of temperature, humidity, ethylene
in room
 To uniformly deliver ethylene
 To remove unwanted products
38
Atmospheric composition

 High carbon dioxide can inhibit ethylene

 Threshold values of carbon dioxide effect is not clear
 Oxygen concentration have influence
39
Advantages

 Degreening with ethylene applied to

 Accelerate the external color development
 Make the fruit more attractive to consumer
40 Disadvantages

 Ethylene degreening causes

 Loss of fruit quality
 Increased weight losses
 Shorter shelf life
 More chance of decay
41
Hot Water Treatment

 Alternative chemical treatment

 The eradication or parasites involving immersion in water
at a temperature above the thermal death point of the
parasite but below that of the host
42 Conti…

 Applied to firm potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and

strawberries
 Also applied to asparagus, broccoli, green beans. Kiwi
fruits . celery and lettuce
43 Conti…

 Hot water treatment can be:

 Short term duration(up to 1 hour)
 Long term duration(up to 4 days)
44 Blanching
 Also known scalding
 Heating of plant food material in hot water or live stream
 Ranging in short time for few seconds to few minutes
 Destroy food enzymes
45 Conti…

 Blanching also serve as….

 Loosen the skin of tomatoes
 Clean the product by removing adhering contaminants
 Removing tissue gas from leafy vegetables( e.g.
spinach)
 Fix green color in vegetables (peas, spinach)
 Remove slime forming substances in vegetables(okra)
46 Advantages

 Maintain quality during storage

 Preserve color
 Reduction in chilling injury
 Killing of critical insect contamination
 Control fungal decay
 Delay ripening process
 Reduce need of chemical disinfestation
 Reduce fruit losses fungal growth
47 Disadvantages

 Require an investment
 Require careful handling
48 Treatments

Hot water dips Hot water rinse

and sprays
49
Hot water dips and trays

 Effective for fungal pathogen and spore control

 Control infection on the surface of peel
 Control decay by killing insects
 Dip at 46 ᴼC for 90 mints
 Recognized as safe (GRAS) compounds applied in hot water
improve the efficiency of their antifungal action.
 Fungicides
 Sulfur dioxide and sodium carbonate
 Blue mold caused by penicillium sp. control by dipping fruit at 50
ᴼC for 2min.
 Continue…
50

 Germany HWT use in storage of organic apples

 Recent extension of hot water treatment is hot water spray machine.
 Food material moved by brush rollers through pressurized spray of
hot water
 Speed and number of brushes or nozzles spraying water can be
varied
 Use high temperature
 Machine used to clean or reduce pathogen presence on fruit and
vegetable such as mangoes
 Use disinfecting insects
 Immersion time can be 1 h or more temp below 50 ᴼC
51 Hot water rinse

 Apply to several fruits and vegetable

 Reduce decay development
 Maintain quality
 Prolong storage or shelf life
 High temperature 45-62 ᴼC
 Revolving brushes for short time 15-25 ᴼC
 Reduce microbial growth
 Decay development and weight loss
 Improve appearance
52 Cont…
 HWT For mango fruit
 to minimize fruit fly damage and anthracnose
 Immerse mango in water bath at 48 ᴼC for 45-60mins
 HWt for pineapple plantlets for transplanting
 Control mealy bugs, phytophthora and nematodes on pineapple
plantlets
 Planting material of HWT 50 ᴼC for 30min to 2 hours
 HWT for banana suckers
 Help against banana weevil
 Before planting clean sucker at hot water bath 52-55 ᴼC for 15-
27mins
53

Papaya

Mango
54
Vapor heat treatment(VHT)

 An effective , nonchemical method of treatment

 Widely used to treat mangoes and other fruits
 Produce at a certain temperature for fixed time period
 Destroys larvae of fruit fly inside the fruit
55
Conti…

 VHT can be done by

 Air saturated with water vapor
 At temperature of 40-50 ᴼC
 Heat transfer by condensation
 On the cooler fruit surface
56
VHT against three species of fruit flies in MANGO

 Target insects
 Bactrocera carambolae
 B. cucurbitae
 B. papayae
 Target fruit
 Mango (Magnifera indica)
57 Step of Mortality Test
To determine the most heat tolerant
1.Hot water Immersion Test
species of fruit fly

To determine the most heat tolerant

2.Susceptibility Mortality Test by VHT
stage of fruit fly

To determine treatment condition(fruit

3.Small-scale Mortality test by VHT
core temp. and holding time)

To confirm a 100% mortality for

4.Large-scale Mortality test by VHT
more than 30,000 effective insects
58 1.Hot Water Immersion Test

 Purpose
To determine the most tolerant species of fruit flies
 Method
Insect was immersed in hot water
Temperature :46 ᴼC
Exposure time: 0,2,4,6,8,10,12
Replication :3 times
59 2.Susceptibility Mortality test by VHT
 Purpose
To determine the most heat tolerant stage of fruit fly against
high temperature
 Methods
Infested mango was treated in VHT
Fruit core temperature:45.0, 46.0,46.5,47.0,47.5 ᴼC
Replication : 3 times
 Cooling
Water cooling :10 mins
Air cooling :30 mins
60 3.Small Scale Mortality Test by VHT

 Purpose
To determine treatment conditions (fruit core temperature
and holding time)
 Method
Temperature : 48ᴼC
Relative humidity: 55%
61 4.Large Scale Mortality Test by VHT

 Purpose
To confirm a 100% mortality for more than 30,000
effective insects
 Method
Temperature :47 ᴼC
Relative humidity :55-95%
62
Advantages

 No chemical use for killing of pests

 No change of Taste , size and color of treated item
 No loss in products weight
 Short process to increase shelf life
 Easy to handle
63 Conti…

 Filtered air and steam is use

 Pulp temperature electronically controlled
 Clean hygienic area
 Complete destruction of fruit fly’s life cycle
 Variety of fruits and vegetable treated
64 Curing

 “Curing is applied to the measures use to prepare starchy

staple root crop and onions for long term storage”
 Have two types
 Curing of roots and tubers
 Curing dry bulb onion
65 Curing of roots and tubers

 Irish potato, sweet potato, winter squash, cassava, garlic etc.

 Cure garlic and onions
 At temperature 70 - 85 ᴼC at 70 % humidity
 About two weeks, or until the necks are dry and tight. 
 Potatoes
 Cured a bit cooler at 55 -65 ᴼC and 95 % humidity
 Two to three weeks 
66 Conti…

 Sweet potatoes
 hot—cure at 85 to 90 ᴼC and 90 % humidity
 For a week
 Winter squash
 Should be cured at 80-85 ᴼC
 For two to three weeks at 70 % humidity
67 Objectives

 Replace and strengthen damage areas of corky skin

 Restore protection against water loss
 Reduce infection by decay organism
68
Condition

 Appropriate temperature higher than ambient

 Atmosphere must kept moist
 Ventilation provided for new skin growth
 Temperature must be kept steady
69 Onion bulb curing
 Carried out immediately after harvest
 It’s a drying -out process
 Done by two ways
 Natural curing
 Take place after harvest under sun
 Least expensive way
 Enhance onion quality
 Artificial curing
 Forcing heated air around onion
70
Objectives

 Access moisture removal

 Accumulation of natural fungicidal compounds in skin
 By exposing to high temperature
 Protection layer formation
 Serving as barrier to infection
 Conti…
71

 Not all vegetables will respond well to a curing process

 In fact, most crops would be ruined by leaving them in warm
conditions
 Some common storage vegetables that should not be cured
include
 beets, cabbage, carrots, turnips etc.
The temperature, humidity and duration of the curing
process is different for the various veggies that require it
72 Reference

1. Baldwin EA. 1994. Edible coatings for fresh fruits and

vegetables: past, present, and future. In: Krochta JM,
Baldwin EA, Nisperos-Carriedo MO, editors. Edible
coatings and films to improve food quality. Lancaster, Pa.:
Technomic Publishing Co., Inc. p 25–64.
2. Billing O. 1989. Flexible packaging. Lund, Sweden:
Akerlund & Rausing
3. Banks NH. 1985. Internal atmosphere modification in Pro-
long coated apples. Acta Hort 157:105.
73