Abstract
Treatments known to inhibit or delay ripening were applied to imported 'Kent' and 'Tommy Atkins' mangoes. Mangoes that were fairly firm, with some ground color development ('Kent') or hard with slight color blush ('Tommy Atkins') ripenness stage were treated with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) at 25 ppm for 24 or 12 hours, respectively, ethanol (5.0g·kg[sup-] fruit) for 24 or 8 hours, respectively, and heat (38 C, 98% RH) for 24 or 12 hours, respectively. Treated fruit were cut 24 hours after treatment, and stored at 7 C for 12 ('Kent') and 14 ('Tommy Atkins') days. For 'Kent' mangoes, 1-MCP and heat treatments decreased fruit firmness, while ethanol treatment maintained firmness similar to control. Similar differences between treatments were observed for cut fruit during storage. Heat treatment resulted in cut fruit with the lowest firmness and titratable acidity. Ethanol treatment significantly decreased the total soluble solids content of cut mangoes compared to all other treatments. After 12 days of storage, cut pieces from ethanol-treated mangoes maintained the best visual quality, and pieces from heat-treated fruit looked overripe. Informal tasting indicated off-flavor in pieces from ethanol-treated 'Kent' mangoes after 8 days in storage. For 'Tommy Atkins' mangoes, ethanol and 1-MCP treatments increased firmness, but only slices from 1-MCP-treated fruit remained firmer in storage. By reducing the duration of ethanol treatment to 8 hours on 'Tommy Atkins' intact mangoes, the off flavor noted for 'Kent' disappeared in stored slices, but other quality parameters were not improved. Heat and 1-MCP treatments resulted in higher L* value of stored cut pieces. Overall, no treatment extended fresh-cut mango shelf life for 'Tommy Atkins', but for 'Kent', spoilage was delayed by two days on all treated pieces.
