Reduction of postharvest rind disorders in citrus fruit by modified atmosphere packaging
Citrus fruit are relatively non-perishable, and can normally be stored for long periods of 6–8 weeks. However, the development of various types of rind disorders limits the postharvest storage capability, and causes massive commercial losses. In the present study, we found that modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) in “bag-in-box” Xtend® films (XF) effectively reduced the development of chilling injury (CI) as well as other types of rind disorders that are not related to chilling, such as rind breakdown, stem-end rind breakdown (SERB) and shriveling and collapse of the button tissue (aging). In all cases, microperforated films (0.002% perforated area) that maintained CO² and O² concentrations of 2–3 and 17–18%, respectively, inside the package were much more effective in reducing the development of rind disorders than macroperforated films (0.06% perforated area), which maintained CO² and O² concentrations of 0.2–0.4 and 19–20%, respectively.