UTILIZATION OF MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING TO EXTEND SHELF LIFE AND MAINTAIN QUALITY OF KHALAL BARHI DATES

Abstract

Barhi dates fruit are one of the most important date palm cultivars which are some of their properties they are mostly eaten and sold at the khalal stage when it has become yellow compared with rutab stage. At this stage the fruit loses its astringency and becomes sweet and best texture, therefore. High moisture content and rapid ripening of Barhi dates shorten their shelf life, as well the Khalal stage lasts for about 4 weeks until the ripening of the fruits begins and transfer to rutab stage. In the present study, Barhi dates packaging in the first by common air - packaging and
second by Modified atmosphere packaging, MAP A (5% O2 + 20% CO2) and MAP B (40%O2+20%CO2) and stored for 30 days at different temperatures 5 and 20 °C, respectively. After 30 days of storage, the fruits were evaluated in terms of the Changes in different Quality indices, such as weight loss, total soluble solids (TSS), texture analysis and organoleptic tests. According to the obtained results, modified atmosphere packaging with (5% O2+ 20% CO2) at 5°C was improve all the physicochemical, textural and organoleptic properties, of the samples, to achieve the lowest weight loss 0.45%gm, TSS 37.35 °Brix compared with before storage was 39°Brix, firmness 9.72N.