ABSTRACT
Fruit waxes and other coatings are used to prolong the shelf life of fresh produce. They do this by restricting gaseous exchange between the fruit and the surroundings, which reduces the metabolism rate and water loss. This chapter investigates coatings for reducing natural Caribbean fruit fly infestation levels in guavas, and the combination of coating with irradiation, dimethoate dip, and methyl bromide fumigation as quarantine treatments. Irradiation has been extensively researched as a quarantine treatment. A trial was conducted to determine if irradiation of coated fruit would give greater Caribbean fruit fly mortality than irradiation of noncoated fruit. The use of a coating postharvest was shown to reduce Caribbean fruit fly infestation levels in guavas to approximately the same extent in naturally infested guavas and cage-infested guavas. The combination of coating and dimethoate was beneficial in reducing Caribbean fruit fly infestation in grapefruit.
