Impact of Fruit Maturity on Internal Disorders in Vapor Heat Treated Mango Cv. ‘B74’

Abstract

UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12) aims to reduce food losses in production and postharvest stages within supply chains. Identifying and addressing contributors to such losses is crucial to their reduction and to overall supply chain sustainability. Internal disorders (IDs) often contribute to postharvest losses and waste of highly perishable fruits like mangoes. Understanding and addressing influencers of susceptibility is limited but essential. Factors potentially associated with the expression of IDs in ‘B74’ mango commercial supply chains were investigated. Over three fruiting seasons (2020/21, 2021/22, and 2022/23), 43 export supply chains in Australia were monitored from two major production regions, the Northern Territory and North Queensland. Prior to export, the mangoes were subject to a mandatory phytosanitary vapor heat treatment (VHT) in which they were heated with saturated water vapor to a core temperature 46 °C maintained for 15 min and were then assessed for IDs at the end of their shelf life. The predominant IDs observed in the ‘B74’ fruit were flesh cavity with white patches (FCWP) and flesh browning (FB). VHT-induced FCWP, but not FB. Harvest maturity was identified as a predisposing factor. FB was generally positively correlated and FCWP was typically negatively correlated with fruit maturity at harvest. Relatively more-mature fruit was prone to FB irrespective of VHT, and relatively less-mature fruit was susceptible to FCWP post-VHT. Therefore, selective harvesting and/or sorting for optimum maturity after harvest can be practiced minimizing the incidence and severity of these two IDs in ‘B74’ fruit. Thus, dry matter (DM) sorting can contribute to postharvest loss reduction and the general sustainability of mango supply chains.