Post harvest fungal spoilage in mandarin at different levels of marketing

Abstract

A systematic survey was conducted during the year 2000-2001 to assess the extent of loss due to post harvest diseases in mandarin orange in Coimbatore at field, wholesale, retail and consumer levels. The magnitude of the loss due to post harvest diseases on mandarin orange varied at different stages of storage and marketing. Fungal spoilage of mandarin orange was higher at retail (27.9 to 40.3% in local mandarin and 23.6 to 35.6 per cent in Nagpur mandrin) and consumer level (15.1 to 22.1 per cent in local mandarin and 14.4 to 18.6 per cent in Nagpur mandarin) and minimum at wholesale (2.5 to 3.1 per cent in local mandarin and 5.1 to 7.1 per cent in Nagpur mandarin) and field level (1.3 per cent). Among the post harvest diseases of mandarin orange, Green mold caused by Penicillium digitatum and blue mold caused by P. italicum caused the major damage.