Quality index of guava ‘Enana Roja Cubana E.E.A 18-40’ during conservation post-harvest

Abstract

Guava is a climacteric fruit, highly perishable because of its intense metabolism during ripening. e de nition of maturity indicators is an important criterion to maintain the quality of fruits. e objective of this work was to evaluate the indicators of fruit maturity of guava ‘Enana Roja Cubana E.E.A 18-40’ under post-harvest storage conditions. Color of exocarp (percentage of fruits), losses of fresh mass (%), rmness of the mesocarp (kgf), total soluble solids (oBrix), titratable acidity (%), pH and maturity index of the fruits were determined of at zero, four and eight days of storage at 16 oC ± 1 oC and relative humid of 75 % - 80 %. e color change of the exocarp to yellow green began at four days and evolved to yellow-green at eight days. Fresh mass losses maintained a signi cantly increasing trend as the ripening process advanced. Aer eight days, rmness decreased to 2.45 kgf, SST increased to 10 °Brix, titratable acidity decreased to 0.36 %, pH increased to 4.36 and maturity index was 27.98 with signi cant differences in evaluated periods. Storage conditions allow fruits to have a shelf life with acceptance for fresh and transformen compsumption

Keywords

• storage
• fruits
• ripening
• psidium guajava l.
• shelf life