Mango Production, Postharvest Physiology and Storage - Tropical and Subtropical Fruits: Postharvest Physiology, Processing and Packaging - page 260

extended storage life both at ambient temperature and at
12 ◦ C, 80% relative humidity (RH) (Hoa et al., 2002).
Polysaccharide coatings were found to be less perme-
able to respiratory gases, such as O 2 , and more permeable
to water vapor compared to carnauba wax. Both coatings
improved appearance, created modified atmospheres and
reduced decay of mango during storage at 10 ◦ or 15 ◦ C
with 90-99% RH. The carnauba wax coating significantly
reduced water loss of mango compared to uncoated and
polysaccharide-coating treatments, whereas the polysac-
charide coating delayed ripening and increased concen-
trations of flavor volatiles (Baldwin et al., 1999). After
30 days of storage at 10 ◦ C, 'Kent' mangoes treated with
1% CaCl 2 and wax had significantly lower respiration rate
and weight loss and a good appearance during the 12 days
of shelf life at 20 ◦ C.
'Julie' mangoes treated with 0.75% w/v aqueous solution
of Pro-long (a mixture of sucrose esters of fatty acids and
sodium salt of caboxy methyl cellulose) and stored at 25 ◦ C
and 85-95% RH reduced weight loss, retarded ripening,
and increased storage life (6 days longer) without causing
any adverse effects on quality (Hoa and Ducamp, 2008).

Packaging and shipment practices
There are several ways of packaging the fruits using differ-
ent types of packaging material. Depending on the cultivar
to be packed, ventilated lugs, fiberboard boxes, and cor-
rugated cartons of different dimensions have been used in
India, Trinidad, Philippines, Florida (USA), and Jamaica.
Roy and Joshi (1989) reported that corrugated fiber board
boxes with a ventilated partition was the best for trans-
portation of 'Alphonso' mangoes because of less phys-
iological loss in weight and low levels of spoilage and
ripening.
Marine shipments of mangoes lower the cost and al-
low higher volumes, both of which could dictate potential
expansion of the mango export industry. Sea transport is
normally supplemented with low temperatures and may in-
volve transit times of more than 2 weeks, followed by a
period in the wholesale and retail systems at various tem-
peratures. Mangoes are reported to ripen satisfactorily with
acceptable eating quality between 21 ◦ and 24 ◦ C (Medlicott
et al., 1990).

STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES

Evaporative cool storage
The evaporative cool chamber is a low-cost, on-farm stor-
age structure for short-term extension of shelf life of fruits
and vegetables. The shelf life of mango (cv. 'Baneshan' and
'Amrapali') could be enhanced by over 1 week when stored
in an evaporative cool chamber (Narayana, 1989; Roy and
Pal, 1989).

Irradiation
Extensive studies have been made to determine the ef-
fect of irradiation on the shelf life extension of mangoes.
Dharkar and Sreenivasan (1968) established that the op-
timum radiation dose for 'Alphonso' mango is 25 Krad
(0.25 kGy), giving an extension in shelf life of 6-8 days at
ambient conditions. UV-C irradiation treatment at energy
levels of 2.46 and 4.93 kJ/m 2 maintained better overall ap-
pearance, lowered decay percentage, and increased shelf
life of 'Haden' mango stored at 25 ◦ C. These benefits cor-
related positively with higher levels of total phenols, total
flavonoids and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and
lipoxygenase (LOX) enzyme activities (Gonzalez-Aguilar
et al., 2007). Updhagay et al. (1994) found that hot wa-
ter treatment followed by irradiation at 0.3 kGy signif-
icantly reduced rotting, delayed color development, pre-
served quality and extended shelf life of Red mango. For
'Awais' mango a radiation dose of 1.0 and 0.5 kGy was
quite enough supplemented with hot water treatment (45 ◦ C
for 5 min) for controlling decay, extending the shelf life,
and improving their chemical contents of the fruits stored
at 10 ◦ ±

Low-temperature storage/cold storage
Mango fruit has a short postharvest life at ambient tem-
perature, and low temperatures are typically used to extend
the storage life. But mangoes, like other tropical and sub-
tropical fruits, are susceptible to CI when kept below some
critical temperature.
The optimum temperature generally considered for
mango storage is about 12 ◦ -13 ◦ C (Medlicott et al., 1990;
Kader, 1992), although 10 ◦ C (Thomas, 1975) and 5 ◦ C
(Abou-Aziz et al., 1976) have also been reported to be
suitable temperatures. The sensitivity of mangoes to tem-
peratures below 10 ◦ C varies with the maturity of the fruit,
the cultivar, and the duration and temperature of exposure
(Medlicott et al., 1990).
Storage of mangoes below 10 ◦ C results in CI, which is
manifested by grayish, scaldlike discoloration of the skin;
skin pitting; uneven ripening; reductions in the level of
carotenoids, aroma, and flavor during ripening; and suscep-
tibility to fungal decay (Abou-Aziz et al., 1976; Thomas and

1 ◦ C and 85-90% RH (El-Salhy et al., 2006). Irra-
diation can be used as a postharvest treatment to disinfest
fruits from insects. It was reported that 300 Gy irradiation
controlled mango seed weevil while 150 Gy was shown to
control 11 species of Tephritid fruit fly (Heather, 1993).