ABSTRACT
Fruits play very important role in human nutrition by supplying vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and antioxidants to the diet. The postharvest retention of these nutrients depends on optimum postharvest handling and storage practices. It is known fact that optimum storage temperature has a tremendous positive effect on the postharvest life and quality of fresh produce. But controlling the storage atmosphere further helps in maintaining their postharvest quality over and above the extension gained by simply controlling the temperature and humidity. However, careful control of atmospheric gases, such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and ethylene is important in extending the storage life of fresh fruits. Otherwise, unfavorable controlled atmosphere (CA) storage conditions results in undesirable quality changes in nutrient levels and color; development of off-flavor or loss of texture. The recommended CA storage conditions vary among fruits even for different species and cultivars of the same fruits. This chapter briefly describes the physiological and biochemical basis for selecting optimum CA, the optimum CA conditions recommended for different fruits and the research done on the effects of different CA conditions on the storage life and quality of apple, apricot, avocado, banana, blueberry, carambola, custard apple, guava, grapes, kiwi fruit, litchi, mango, papaya, pears, peaches, pomegranate, Rambutan, 314and raspberry. The advantages of complimentary effect of various pre-treatments with CA and recent techniques like dynamic CA storage have also been discussed with reference to some fruits.
