ISSN: 2574-2701
Authors: Alemu TT*
Mango (Mangiferaindica L) fruits were consumed for their pleasant taste and flavour. It rich sources of vitamins A, B and C. However, there is huge loss of the mango fruit during storage due to lack of temperature management and use of slow cooling rate. The objective of this study is therefore to investigate the effect of cooling rates on physical and chemical properties of mango fruits subjected to different cooling rates. The study was lied down with one factors randomized complete block design (RBCD) and replicated three times. Mango fruits were subjected to three different cooling rates (0.001, 0.019 and 0.087) through storage at different storage temperature (-1, 4 and -18°C) and evaluated in terms of physicochemical properties of the fruits during the storage. Data were analyzed by using Minitab software and the effect of cooling rate on all response variables measured was analyzed using Analysis of variance and the significance terms were accepted at 95% (p <0.05) confidence level. The result indicated that mango fruits subjected to different cooling rate exhibited significant change for all evaluated parameters. The mango fruits stored at highest cooling rates (0.087) preserves moisture contents from (70.57-64.45% ) and at lowest cooling rates, moisture reduced from (64.73-60.45%) pH increase (3.7-3.78) and Titratable acidity (TA) decrease (0.35-0.30 %) , total solid soluble (TSS) increase from (8.76-11.25 degree brix) weight loss increase (13.6-19.4%) and the ash content of mango fruits stored at highest cooling rates changed from (8.8-6.8%). This could be due to the fact that highest cooling rate (0.087) preserves physico-chemical properties. During this study because of some constraints, some parameters were not included. Therefore, based on the limitation of the work, further research is needed to study the effect of cooling rates on vitamin (A,C and B) and minerals and (protein, carbohydrates, fat), and beta-carotene of mango fruits which are not conducted in this research due to budget and time limitations, large scale cooling room needed. Generally, it was concluded that, highest loss of mango fruits occurred due to inappropriate storage temperature and highest cooling rates (0.087) preserve physico-chemical properties during storage periods.
Keywords: Cooling rates; Mango fruit; Physico-chemical properties
