The Effect of Hot Water Treatments on Gray Mold and Physicochemical Quality of Kiwi fruit During Storage

Decline in postharvest losses of kiwifruit depended to maintain ofquality characteristics during storage and transportation. storage losses causedserious economic losses in kiwifruit. this study was conducted to inhibition ofpathogen infection and increasing fruit quality of kiwifruit. hayward kiwifruitsinoculated by b.cinerea conidia through pore wounds which formed byremoval of the pedicels. fruits treated through immersion in hot water (45, 50and 55 oc) for 2, 4 and 8 minutes after 3 weeks. all fruits stored at 0.5oc and85-90 rh for 18 weeks. the samples had taken at 6th, 12th and 18th weeks andmeasured some characters including weight loss, peel and pulp color indices(l* and chroma), decay numbers, firmness, decay depth, ssc, ta, ssc/ta,ph, ec, ascorbic acid, compared with the control. results showed that weightloss rate increased about 2 fold of control but decay depth and losses preventedat 6th and 12th weeks of storage period significantly. firmness was higher thancontrol at 12th storage week in hot water treatments but had not significantdifferences with control until end of storage period. generally, l* parameterhad a positive relationship with firmness. ascorbic acid increased specially incontrol treatment during cool storage period. ec, ph, and ta parameters hadconstant changes during of storage.