ISHS Acta Horticulturae 498: IV International Symposium on Kiwifruit
ADAPTING PERFORATED BOX LINERS TO THE CALIFORNIA KIWIFRUIT INDUSTRY |
| Authors: | P. Wiley, Carlos H. Crisosto, F. Gordon Mitchell |
| Keywords: | shriveling, vented area, cooling, water loss, quality |
| Abstract:
The performance of California kiwifruit packed using solid liners, perforated liners, and micro-perforated liners on the rate of initial cooling time, water loss, and quality attributes after shipping was evaluated under controlled laboratory and commercial conditions. Controlled cooling tests using a portable cooling tunnel indicated an important cooling time reduction (reaching 7/8 cooling time) without affecting quality when perforated liners were used instead of solid ones. The use of these vented box liners will result in direct energy savings to packinghouses proportional to the reduction in cooling times. Also, shorter cooling times will allow scheduling operations for the off-peak utility periods. Fruit quality attributes such as fruit firmness, soluble solids, and titratable acidity were not affected by any of the box liner treatments. Kiwifruit weight loss depended on the box liner vented area (V.A.) and storage temperature. After 18 weeks at 0°C kiwifruit packed in the solid (0% V.A.), perforated (0.6% V.A.) and micro-perforated (1.2% V.A.) box liners had water losses of 0.7, 2.4 and 5.2%, respectively. Fruit shrivel was only observed on fruit packaged in the micro-perforated liners when water loss exceeded 4.0% in relation to the harvest fresh weight. In one of the two seasons, pitting incidence was measured on fruit from the micro-perforated box liner treatment. | |
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