The Influence Of Waxing On The Accumulation Of Off-Flavor In Satsuma Mandarin (Citrus Unshiu Marc) Fruit

In China, the yield of loose-skin mandarins account for 70% of total citrus production, in which, Satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc) ranks predominant position. However, accumulating of off-flavor in Satsuma mandarin after commercial handling, like waxing, effects fruit flavor quality seriously. How to overcome or delay the off-flavor forming in waxed loose-skin mandarin is the bottleneck in the main citrus producing area of Hubei province in China. To solve this problem,'Praecox Tanaka'Satsuma mandarins (Citrus unshiu Marc) were sampled in marketing years 2008/09 and 2009/10 to explore the relationships between commercial handling and off-flavor accumulating. The main results were as follow:1. Commercial handling affects fruit quality.Both washing and waxing treatments resulted to the accumulative off-flavor in fruit.2. Storage temperature affects fruit quality.At low temperature storage, rates of weight loss, respiration, as well as off-flavor accumulation were declined, and accordingly the storage life was prolonged. Comparing the different storage temperature, we finded that 4℃was an optimal temperature for long-term storage of commercial handling Satsuma mandarins. However, when the cold stored fruit were transfer to ambient conditions, the off-flavor can usually dramatically increase.3. The intervals between commercial handling and cold storage initiation affect the fruit quality.After commercial handling, the fruit should be transferred into cold storage as quickly as possible, since the weight loss and off-flavor accumulation could be effectively inhibited by low temperature. Moreover even the accumulated off-flavor could be partially reduced when fruit were transferred into cold storage condition from ambient temperature.