The use of low temperature and coatings to maintain storage quality of breadfruit, Artocarpus altilis (Parks.) Fosb.

Harvested, ripening breadfruit softened synchronously throughout the depth of the fruit. Postharvest life was optimally extended at 12-13 degreesC while chilling injury was evident at 7 degreesC. Peak CO2 production of fruit at ambient temperature (24-30 degreesC) was 300 ml kg(-1) h(-1), but was one fifth this value for fruit stored at 13 degreesC and occurred 5-10 days later. Peak C2H4 production was similarly delayed at 13 C, but was instead depressed eightfold. Semperfresh F, Nutri-Save, Sta-Fresh MP and chitosan coatings all retarded fruit softening, more so at ambient temperature than at 13 C. All coatings resulted in lower internal 02 concentrations and higher internal CO2 concentrations. Unlike the carbohydrate-based coatings, Sta-Fresh MP reduced water loss and markedly retarded skin browning, a cosmetic problem in refrigerated storage of breadfruit. Starch breakdown and sugar production were comparable in coated and uncoated fruit at ambient temperature, but fruit at 13 C exhibited low temperature sweetening with sugar accumulation and no accompanying starch degradation. Any advantage afforded by delayed ripening with the coatings was out-weighed by the development of off-odours and flesh discoloration in the coated fruit. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.