Postharvest loss management has attained the main concern in the current world for the growing population and to ensure global food security. As a non-climacteric fruit, proper postharvest management is vital for dragon fruits in the context of decreasing postharvest losses and extending shelf life. A factorial experiment consisting of three locations (Tala, Dumuria, Keshobpur), and three precooling systems (without cooling, hydro cooling, CoolBot-AC cooling) was conducted to evaluate physico-chemical quality attributes of dragon fruits. The results showed that physico-chemical quality attributes were significantly influenced by precooling systems in which the CoolBot-AC cooling system significantly reduced weight loss by more than 9 % and extended shelf life by more than 2.5 days. Of the three-precooling system, the CoolBot-AC system significantly performed better resulting in higher flesh weight, flesh and pericarp ratio, edible portion, moisture, and dry matter content over other precooling systems. Similarly, CoolBot-AC precooling system performed pointedly better than other precooling systems and retained acceptable skin colour, firmness, high levels of TSS content, 12.03 % more anthocyanins, 30.73 % more flavonoid, 32.55 % more total phenols, 24.22 % more carotenoid, and high levels of ascorbic acid content. No statistical variation was documented among locations with a few exceptions. Therefore, the results indicated that CoolBot-AC precooling system could be an effective postharvest management strategy for prolonging shelf life and reducing postharvest losses of dragon fruit.
Key words: CoolBot-AC, postharvest, physico-chemical, precooling, shelf life
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