Vol. 9 (1) : January-February 2018 issue
Green Farming Vol. 9 (1) : 93-99 ; January-February, 2018
Studies on storage and shelf-life enhancement of onions
R.P. MURUMKAR1*, P.A. BORKAR2, A.R. DORKAR3, V.N. MATE4, P.K. RATHOD5 and B.M. BHALERAO6
All India Coordinated Research Project on Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola - 444 104 (Maharashtra)
Designation : 1Asstt. Res. Engineer *(rajeshmurumkar@gmail.com), 2Res. Engg., 3Sr. Res. Asstt., 4Asstt. Res. Engineer, 4Asstt. Ento., 5Asstt. Bioch.
Subject : Food Science, Preservation & Processing, Protectants & Infestation and Post-harvest Technology
Paper No. : P-7086
Total Pages : 7
Received : 07 December 2017
Revised accepted : 18 January 2018
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Citation :
R.P. MURUMKAR, P.A. BORKAR, A.R. DORKAR, V.N. MATE, P.K. RATHOD and B.M. BHALERAO. 2018. Studies on storage and shelf-life enhancement of onions. Green Farming Vol. 9 (1) : 93-99 ; January-February, 2018
ABSTRACT
Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of different storage treatments to enhance the storage/shelf-life of stored onions. Physiological weight losses, sprouting losses and rotting losses were measured after specific intervals and compared to optimize the better method for enhancement of storage life of onions. Process parameters such as pipe diameter, hole diameter and number of pipes were optimized. During the year 2015-16, the total loss observed was maximum in control treatment (42.60 %) i.e. traditional heaping followed by natural ventilation using PVC pipes (22.78 %) and least in forced ventilation (18.54 %). During the year 2016-17, the total loss observed was maximum in control treatment (43.91 %) followed by natural ventilation without using pipes (35.93%), natural ventilation using perforated PVC pipes (23.81%), initial force ventilation at 38oC for 108 h (22.81%) followed by natural ventilation using perforated PVC pipes and least in daily forced ventilation (20.47%). Hence, after curing of onions by farmers method perforated PVC pipes can be used in onion storage structures for minimizing the overall losses during storage of onions.
Key words :
Onion, PVC pipes, Shelf-life, Sprouting losses, Storage, Ventilation.
