Chilling injury and quality changes in Pachanadan banana during storage at low temperature

Low temperature storage is considered to be the most effective method for maintaining the quality of most fruits and vegetables because it retards respiration, ethylene production, ripening, senescence, undesirable metabolic changes and decay (Hardenburg et al., 2). Unfortunately, tropical fruits are highly sensitive to chilling injury (CI) during low temperature storage. Critical storage temperature varies from crop to crop and within different varieties of the same crop. Pachanadan banana (Pome, AAB group) is one of the important commercial varieties grown in southern India. The objective of the present investigation was to study the effect of different storage temperatures on development of CI symptoms and quality changes in Pachanadan banana during storage.Pachanadan banana (Pome, AAB group) fruits stored at 10°C developed chilling injury (CI) symptoms characterized by pitting and black spots after 15 days of storage, while at 15°C no chilling injury was noticed till 15 days. However, after 20 days of storage at 15°C about 25% fruits exhibited CI symptoms. The ripening of fruits, at ambient temperature after taking out from 10°C (on 15th day) was impaired, while those at 15°C ripened normally even after 20 days of storage. The data on quality parameters viz., total soluble solids, acidity, starch and total sugars also supported this observation. The study revealed that CI development is a function of temperature and duration of storage and Pachanadan banana is susceptible to CI even at 15°C when stored beyond 20 days without any packaging