Abstract

                                Cashew apples are highly perishable fruits and cannot be stored in ambientconditions for more than one day. The study of modified atmosphericpackaging of cashew apple was aimed to extend the shelf life. Cashew apple(variety: VRI 3) was subjected to passive MAP of O2 – 21%, CO2- 0.03 %, andN2 78%. PP 60 μm film showed the lowest permeability of O2 and CO2 was1999 mL/m2/day and 2935 mL/m2/day. The cashew apple packed with PP60 μm had the lowest mass loss of 1.356 %, maximum retention of color56.02 (‘L’), 36.96 (‘a’), 41.14(‘b’), firmness of 3.423 N, pH 0.259, and vitaminC of 404.35 mg/100g on the 9th day of storage under refrigerated condition.Fungal growth was also better controlled in PP 60 μm under refrigeratedconditions and fungal growth was 9.73 x 104cfu/g on the 9th day. This studyrevealed that passive MAP of Cashew apple can extend the shelf life up to9 days of storage.

Key words : Modified atmospheric packaging; Cashew apple; Passive MAP; Shelf life extension