DETERMINATION OF POSTHARVEST LOSSES AND SHELF LIFE OF TOMATO AS INFLUENCED BY DIFFERENT TYPES OF POLYTHENE AND TEMPERATURE

Abstract

The present experiments were carried out in the laboratory of the Department of Horticulture and Postharvest technology in Sher-eBangla Agricultural University, Dhaka with an objective to asses

the postharvest losses and shelf life of tomato during the period

from 15 March to 25 April 2006. The experiment comprised of two

factors i.e. several colors of polythene bag (viz: Control, Black

Polythene, Blue polythene, Yellow polythene and White

transparent polythene) and different types of polythene (viz: sealed

and perforated) in refrigerated condition (10 11 0 c) and room temperature (28 0 c).The colours of polythene were found to have significant influence on total weight loss, time required for colour development, firmness, moisture percentage, dry matter percentage and shelf life of tomato. Black polythene was found to be superior to other colours of polythene in respect of all the parameters both in room and refrigerated condition. Types of polythene had significant effect on all the parameters except time required for colour development (days). Sealed polythene was found to be the best in all the parameters except in case of shelf life of tomato both in refrigerated condition and room temperature. There was significant variation among the treatments resulted from the combination of colour and types of polythene in respect to all the parameters except firmness percentage. Shelf life of tomatowas the highest (19.52 days)at room temperature and (34.09 days) at refrigerated condition. Again the highest firmness (%),moisture (%),dry matter (%) was in black sealed polythene (96.75%), (98.38%) and (9.73%)at refrigerated condition and (25.80%), (85.36%) and (7.00%) at room temperature respectively. The best result was obtained from black polythene when combined with sealed condition.