Prestorage hot water treatments retard papaya fruit deterioration and enhanced fruit quality in cold storage

Papaya (Carica papaya) fruit has a short shelf life and suffers significant postharvest losses due to climacteric, instant ripening and perishable nature. Pre-storage hot water treatment (HWT) has significant potential to delay decay incidence in horticultural commodities. The present study was designed to evaluate effectiveness of HWT on ‘Red lady’ papaya fruit for minimizing the fruit decay and maintaining the quality during storage. Physiologically mature unripe ‘Red lady’ papaya fruit harvested from a commercial papaya orchard. Selected fruits were treated at three different hot water temperatures (50 °C, 52 °C and 54 °C) along with a control (room temp) for 10 minutes thereafter stored at 12 °C and 85–90% RH for four weeks. Different sensory evaluation, fruit quality scales and enzymatic activities were observed at weekly intervals. Fruit stored after 54 °C HWT showed lower weight loss (4.63%), decay incidence (5.1%) and higher fruit firmness (12.92 N) relative to control. Fruit treated at 52 °C HWT improved the fruit acidity, but total soluble solids decreased than control. The results revealed that ascorbic acid (33.33 mg/100 g), total phenolic contents (35 mg/g FW) total antioxidants (47.50% DPPH inhibition), and antioxidative enzyme activities were improved by 52 °C HWT. It is concluded that pre storage papaya fruit treatment (HWT @ 52 °C) preserves the quality of fruit throughout storage on the other hand at 54 °C HWT helps in decreased fruit decaying. It can be summarized that papaya fruit can be treated with hot water in the range of 52–54 °C to support the fruit shelf life and suppress fruit decay along with maintaining fruit quality.Practical applications: Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is a climacteric fruit which is highly susceptible to fungal attacks after harvest. Due to its perishable nature, it becomes decayed and huge amount of highly nutritious and medicinally important fruit is wasted. Recently people are more concerned about food safety which limits the use of fungicides for controlling the fruit decay in papaya. However, heat treatment has tremendous potential to control microbial decay, and keep food commodities safe from hazardous chemicals. In this study, the hot water treatment has successfully suppressed the fruit decay and maintained fruit quality of papaya in the course of entire period of cold storage. These findings indicated that use of hot water treatment is a practical approach for increasing the shelf life of papaya fruit.