Kombinasi Perlakuan Hot Water Treatment dan CaCl2 untuk Mencegah Kerusakan Fisiologis Buah Belimbing (Averrhoa Carambola L.)

Demand and productivity of starfruit have been increased every year. With that potency, starfruit could determined as national fruit commodityto be exported. One of the obstacle that encountered by fruit export from Indonesia was the high attack of pest or fruit fly which caused many fruit do not qualify in the quarantine process. Moreover, the problem of postharvest handling should be more focused because the starfruit was perishable commodity. In this research, postharvest handling was combination of hot water treatment and soaking in CaCl2 solution. This research used starfruit variety of Dewi with ripeness index of level 4. Samples treated with hot water treatment (HWT) with three levels (35oC for 60'; 45oC for 40' and 55oC for 15'). After HWT, samples treated with soaking in CaCl2 solution at three level treatments (60'; 40'; dan 20'). The results showed that HWT was very significantly affected on overall starfruit quality during storage, whereas treatment of soaking in CaCl2 solution wasn't significantly affected on starfruit quality. Meanwhile, combination of HWT and CaCl2 were significantly affected to respiration rate, weight shrinkage, brightness level, yellow-blue pulp level, and panelists acceptance toward flavor and aroma. Treatment of HWT 55ºC for 15 minutes, softening of fruit pulp cannot be avoided because of the heat injury. Combination of HWT 45ºC for 40 minutes and 4% CaCl2 for 60 minutes can maintain quality till 24th day panelist acceptance test