Nandini, P VRekha Raveendran, R SKAU2017-07-312017-07-312009http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810026765Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the most important tropical fruit crops and is often called as “King of fruits”. Although India is the second largest producer of fruits, the domestic fruit industry is fraught with the massive problem of wastage caused by the woefully inadequate post harvest facilities and other supportive infrastructure including cold chain.The present study entitled “Preservation of ripe mango chunks by hurdle technology” is a comprehensive study carried out with an objective to increase the shelf life of mango chunks by hurdle technology.Two popular local varieties of mango viz Neelum and Kottukonam were selected for the study. The mangoes were washed, peeled and cut in to pieces and subjected to different combinations of treatments and stored in glass bottles at ambient and refrigerated conditions for a period of 30 days.Physical characteristics such as fruit weight, fruit length, flesh weight and stone weight of the selected two mango cultivars were assessed and found to be in favour of Neelum variety.Chemical constituents of the stored chunks such as moisture, pH, acidity, total sugar, reducing sugar and total phenol content were assessed in both the varieties of mango chunks in all the four treatments, at an interval of 0,15 and 30 days of storage at ambient and refrigerated conditions. The results revealed that moisture, pH and acidity was found to be higher in variety Kottukonam stored at refrigerated condition while total sugar, reducing sugar and total phenol contents were found to be higher in variety Neelum stored at ambient condition.The organoleptic qualities of the mango chunks such as appearance, colour, flavour, texture, taste and overall acceptability were assessed by a panel of selected Judges using a score card. The sensory evaluation revealed that among the quality attributes, appearance, flavour, texture and overall acceptability were found to be higher in variety Kottukonam where as colour and taste attribute were found to be higher in variety Neelum. Blanching of mango chunks decreased the quality attributes significantly.Treatment T4 had retained maximum scores for overall acceptability (4.14).The chunks stored at refrigerated condition were found to be highly acceptable for the judges. Storage condition had influenced the overall acceptability of the chunks and found that overall acceptability of mango chunks decreased as the storage period advances.Microbial examination of the chunks revealed that bacterial infestation was not detected in any of the samples stored up to a period of 30 days, but negligible yeast and mould growth were detected in Neelum and Kottukonam chunks stored at ambient condition. Yeast and mould growth were not detected in mango chunks stored at refrigerated condition up to a period of 15 days.Cost of the mango chunks was worked out for all the treatments and was found to be reasonable.It may be concluded that mango chunks remained intact with consumer appeal for a period up to 15 days if stored under refrigerated condition after treating with 500 Brix sugar syrup containing 0.2% citric acid with KMS (0.35%) and sodium benzoate (0.04%).ennullThesis