Influence of Acetylene on Ripening Process of Avocado Pear and Orange Fruits

Postharvest handling on ripening process of avocado and orange fruits was conducted in this study. Ripening systems which include application of acetylene gas generated from overripe banana (T₁), storage in airtight drum (T₂) and use of smoke (T₃) were adopted while fresh samples without any treatment were used as control (C) measure. The results obtained revealed a general trend indicating that both treated climacteric fruits begun to ripen on the third day with scoring values of 3.33±0.33 and 2.67±0.33 for avocado and orange fruits respectively except for control which showed ripening symptom on day five with scoring values of 3.33±0.33 and 3.00±0.00 for the fruits respectively. T₁ and C maintain fully ripen state on the fruits as other systems begun to rotten samples on the 8th day of storage duration. Sensory evaluations for both samples under acetylene treatment were very good and pleasantly good throughout the period of observation in term of texture, appearance and flavour as compared to other treatments except that the flavour were fairly bad and fairly good at the initial stage and on day 2 respectively. Acetylene treatment on both sample has demonstrated high tendency to sustain textural feel on fruits under this postharvest handling process without any noticeable deteriorative changes and can be recommended for application in food processing industries.