Effect of brief pre-marketing holding of bananas in nitrogen on time to ripen

Abstract

Bananas obtained from more than 20 plantations in 3 seasons and stored in nitrogen at 20°C for 3 days soon after harvest took about 27 days to ripen in subsequent air storage, compared with untreated fruit which ripened after about 19 days. However, skin injury was found on about 4% of fruit, with the affected areas principally being previously damaged areas. When nitrogen treatment was delayed, the inhibition of ripening was lost and skin injury became more severe. While there were some differences in chemical composition found between nitrogen treated and untreated fruit, taste tests showed that this had no noticeable effect on eating quality.