Postharvest UV-C treatment affects peel degreening ‘Kensington Pride’ mango fruit stored at 20°C

Ultraviolet irradiation (100-400 nm) has been reported to have beneficial effects on maintaining the postharvest quality of horticultural produce. Specially, a short-term pre-storage treatment with UV-C (180-280 nm) has been shown to extend the postharvest shelf-life of many horticulture crops. In this preliminary experiment, mature green ‘Kensington Pride’ mangoes (Mangifera indica Linn.) were exposed to UVC light at four different intensities 0, 4.0, 8.3 and 11.7 kJ m^-2, and stored for 7 days at 20°C. After storage, fruit were assessed for skin color, flesh color, flesh firmness, soluble solids content (SSC) and titratable acidity (TA). The results showed that the rate of peel degreening following UV-C treatment and storage at 20°C was significantly lower than untreated fruit. This response was dose dependent, where increasing levels of UV-C irradiation resulting in slower peel degreening. UV-C irradiated fruits also remained significantly firmer than untreated fruits. In addition, UV-C treatment also significantly affected the flesh color, SSC and TA levels. These results show that a pre-storage UV-C irradiation treatment could be a potential postharvest treatment that can delay the peel degreening and other associated ripening related events in ‘Kensington Pride’ mango fruit when handled and stored at 20°C.