Conditioned ?Hass? fruit can be cold-stored at 2?C for up to 40 days

Preventing ripening is required for seafreight export and delayed marketing. In avocado, storage is a balance between low temperatures to minimize respiration rate, but not too low to cause black skin discoloration (discrete patches) from chilling injury. Thus,?Hass? fruit are usually stored at 4-5?C. A cold conditioning treatment of 3-4 days at 6?C allows cold disinfestation at 1?C for about 16 days without discrete patches developing, but it was unclear whether conditioning could allow longer storage times at these lower temperatures. To test this, ?Hass? fruit were either not conditioned or conditioned, held at 1?C or 5?C for up to 40 days, then assessed for skin damage soon after removal and ripe fruit quality. In most cases, conditioning and storing at 1?C maintained ripe fruit quality for up to 20-25 days, but longer storage resulted in skin damage. Conditioning then holding at 1-5?C for 30 days showed that 2?C storage resulted in negligible skin damage and the best balance between minimal flesh diseases and disorders. Also, storing conditioned fruit for 30 days at 2?C resulted in similar severity of flesh diseases and disorders as non-stored fruit, and significantly less than with 5?C. Skin appearance was similar with 2 and 5?C storage. After 40 days, flesh defects were significantly less with 2?C than with 5?C, and with acceptable skin spotting and discrete patches severity. These results suggest that conditioned ?Hass? fruit can be cold-stored at 2?C for up to 40 days and perhaps reduce dependence on controlled atmosphere systems. Original title, full list of authors, and sourcesStorage of ?Hass?avocado below 5?CP. Hofman1*, J. Marques1, E. Dann2, L. Coates3, B. Stubbings1, L. Smith3, J. Dean3, A. Cooke3 1 Agri-Science Queensland, Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, Maroochy Research Station, PO Box 5083, SCMC, Nambour, 4560, Queensland, Australia. 2Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland, Ecosciences Precinct, 41 Boggo Rd, Dutton Park, 4102, Queensland, Australia 3 Agri-Science Queensland, Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation, EcoSciences Precinct, 41 Boggo Road, Dutton Park, 4102, Queensland, Australia. World Avocado Congress 2011The picture is by aguacatehass.es