Effect of Cutting Styles on Quality of Fresh-Cut ‘Khai Tuek’ Mango Fruit

Abstract

Mangoes are an important economic fruit crop in Thailand. Currently, consumers prefer to consume it in the form of fresh-cut products. However, a problem of quality change on the cutting develops during distribution and affects consumer acceptance. Therefore, this research aimed to study the cutting styles on the quality change of fresh-cut mango during storage. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design (CRD) with four treatments and six replications. The mature-green mango fruits (average 300 g/fruit) were cut into cross-cut, longitudinal-cut, slices and whole fruit (without cutting) as control, then packed in Polypropylene (PP) plastic trays and stored at 8±2 ºC for 10 days. It was found that the longitudinal-cut fruit delayed the quality change of the fresh-cut mango, and effectively maintained hue value, carotenoid content, and browning score compared to other cutting styles. However, the total soluble solids and titratable acidity of all treatments were not statistically significantly different. The longitudinal-cut type maintained quality and delayed flesh browning of fresh-cut mango for up to 6 days, while other cutting styles had only 4 days.