Effect of Mango Hot Water Treatment and Artificial Ripening on Its Quality

Fruit ripening of mango by artificial treatment is prohibited based on the relevant international standard, but it is still applied in commercial field in China. The simulating experiments were conducted, the main experimental results were as follows. Mango, at maturity index from 60%～90%, treated by artificial methods, reaches a state of over mature in 4～8 days. The differences between treated and controled mangoes in soluble solid content and pH values are markedly large with different maturity indexes. Furthermore, the differences between treated and controled mangoes in taste and the appearance are large, while the differences in peel color and hardness are not large. Hot water treatment can make the color of both peel and pulp homogeneous. The soluble solid content and pH values are higher than those non-hot-treated fruit. Artificial ripening also results in a poor quality, whereas fruits without any artificial treatment have high decay rates because they are easily infected by pathogens during ripening. Thus, hot water treatment as a commercial postharvest technology of mango fruit is recommended here.