Effect of different packaging films on shelf life and quality of peach under super and ordinary market conditions.

Peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) fruits of cultivar 'Shan-i-Punjab' were harvested at colour break stage and packed in paper moulded trays followed by wrapping with different packaging films viz. cryovac heat shrinkable RD-106, cling and low density polyethylene (LDPE) film. After packaging, the fruits were stored under two different conditions i.e. super-market conditions (18-20 °C; 90-95 % RH) and ordinary market conditions (28-30 °C; 60-65 % RH). The fruits were evaluated for various quality attributes periodically. The shrink film helped in reducing the loss in weight, firmness, decay incidence and maintained the various qualities attributes like total soluble solids, sugars, acidity and ascorbic acid content of the fruits during shelf-life better than unwrapped control fruits. The pectin methyl esterase enzyme activity was also found to be lower in shrink film packed fruits over the unwrapped control fruits. The in-package gaseous composition (O2 and CO2) in shrink film packed fruits was found to be at desired level which resulted in maintenance of pleasant flavour of the fruits. On the other hand LDPE film accumulated very high level of CO2, which led to formation of fermenting odour and decay of fruits in the package. The data revealed that RD-106 film proved quite effective in prolonging the shelf-life and maintaining the quality of peach fruits for 9 and 4 days under super market conditions (SMC) and ordinary market conditions (OMC), respectively as against 6 and 2 days only in case of unpacked control fruits under both the marketing conditions. The results suggest that shrink film could be used in packaging of peach without negative effects on quality.