Effect of pre-storage treatments on the quality and storage life of Asian pear

Different post-harvest treatments such as dip wax, GA₃ (50 ppm) and Bavistin (500 ppm) were applied to freshly harvested Patharnakh pear fruits. The fruits were packed in CFB cartons and stored in cold storage maintained at 0–2°C and 90–95% RH. The control fruits were kept untreated under same conditions. The fruits were evaluated after 30, 45 and 60 days interval for various physiological and biochemical parameters such as physiological loss in weight, firmness, organoleptic evaluation, TSS, total sugars and titratable acidity. Wax coating was found to be the most effective treatment in reducing the weight loss and breakdown of fruit firmness. The results indicated that wax coated fruits can be stored upto 60 days in cold storage with excellent appearance, quality and acceptable firmness compared to control and other treatments, which were found soft and shrivelled due to loss of weight and firmness and in some fruit slight off flavour and core browning was also noticed.