Storage, ripening and handling of fruit

Abstract

Fruits are valued as nutritive foods that are pleasing to eat. The fruits discussed here are the fleshy products of floral fertilisation, which are eaten as a dessert, a salad vegetable, or as an ingredient of dishes such as stews and curries. Fruits are eaten fresh, processed into canned, frozen, and baked products, or converted into juice or jam. The raw material for processing is sometimes fruit that is unsuitable for the fresh market. Fruits are classified by botanical or geographical relationships, similarities in fruit type or manner of cropping, or culinary use. Pome fruits (apple, nashi, pear), stone fruits (apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach, plum), and citrus fruits (grapefruit, lemon, mandarin, orange) represent botanically related species. Berry fruits (blueberry, boysenberry, loganberry, raspberry, strawberry) belong to different families but have in common a berry-type fruit that grows on a vine. Tropical fruits (banana, durian, mango, pineapple, rambutan) have a common geographical origin. Salad vegetable fruits (capsicum, cucumber, egg plant, tomato, zucchini) are grouped by culinary use. Fresh fruits are living plant organs, a fact that is the basis of correct handling procedures. Live produce respires, exchanges water with its environment, is subject to injury by mechanical means, insects, or toxic chemicals, to disease caused by fungi and bacteria, and to metabolic disorders. 3.1 Maturity and ripening The terms maturity and ripeness have specific meanings to the postharvest biologist. Maturity refers to the stage of development of the fruit on the parent plant. There is a minimum period of development that must be undergone by any fruit before it is ready for harvest. A mature fruit is one that either has acceptable eating quality at the time of harvest or else has the potential to ripen into a product of acceptable quality. A fruit can be mature but unripe, and indeed many fruits are harvested mature but unripe. Bananas, kiwi fruit and avocados are examples of fruit that are picked unripe and that ripen (or are ripened) afterwards. Ripening occurs when D. Arthey et al. (eds.), Fruit Processing