Impacts to avocado ‘Hass’ fruit in the packaging line and its effect on post-harvest quality

Abstract

Harvest, postharvest, storage and distribution processes of the avocado ‘Hass’ fruit must maintain the quality of the fruit because in these processes the fruit is exposed to impacts that cause quality losses. The objectives of this study were: 1) to quantify the magnitude and sites where the impacts occur in the selection line; 2) to determine the damages that generate the impacts in the external and internal quality of the fruits; and 3) to evaluate the effect of the types of impact and the refrigeration on the quality of the fruit in maturity of consumption. A wireless sensor with an avocado fruit was used, which measures the impacts and transmits them to a laptop that counts in real time the number of impacts and their magnitude. The sensor was passed through the selection line of four exporting balers, the process was separated into four stages and the speed of the fruit strip was varied. We also evaluated the effect of induced impacts on fruit quality at maturity of consumption, after storage at room temperature or in refrigeration. The maximum impacts differed between packers and occurred in the fruit emptying stage; in addition, a low speed in the emptying band did not reduce the intensity of the impacts. Only fruits stored for 28 days in refrigeration (with induced impacts) showed damages to their internal quality at maturity of consumption.