Effects of Temperature Conditioning on Postharvest Chilling Injury of Fruits

Many tropical and subtropical crops are sensitive to low temperatures. when these crops are kept at temperatures lower than 10-15°c but above the freezing point for a certain period, chilling injury occurs. tissue strength of fruits decreases because normal metabolic processes are not maintained at these temperatures. the dysfunction of cells, various physiological and biochemical changes occur when chilling sensitive crops are subjected to chilling stress. the most common symptoms of chilling injury are pitting, internal browning, core breakdown, soggy breakdown, soft scald and abnormal ripening fruits sensitive to chilling injury cannot benefit the full advantage of cold storage due to this deteriorations. many pre- and post-harvest techniques and chemicals have been applied in these crops to reduce or delay the effects of chilling injury. there is not a single effective method for all conditions or all crops. different techniques are used to reduce the effects of chilling injury for each species and variety even each case. one of the most widely used methods is temperature conditioning by which different temperatures before or during storage could be applied. different temperatures conditioning are used for different fruits.