Abstract:
High percentage (>40%) of fresh produce is lost in Ethiopia after harvest due to lack of
properstorage and transportation facilities. This problem needs solution through use of
af ordable appropriate technologies that can be developed using local resources. Use of
ZECC constructed from clay bricks with three cooling pads viz. sand, sawdust and charcoal
was studied using white sapote fruits. Cornstarch mixed with lemon and ginger extract to play
antimicrobial rolewas employed as coating material. The experiment was conducted with two
factors viz. cooling pad and edible coating consisting of twelve treatment combinations with
ambient storage and uncoated fruits as control. The study was conducted for 18 days of
storage time assessing various quality parameters of the stored fruits at 3 days interval. The
environment data in the storage indicated that temperature dropped by6-10.2
oC as compared
to the24.5-32
oC of the ambient and the relative humidity was raised to 88.2, 85.1 and 87.6%
for the cooling pads of sand, sawdust and charcoal, respectively, as compared to 47.59% of
the ambient air. The three pad materials resulted in cooling ef iciencies of 91.22, 87.95, and
87.82%, respectively. The shelf life of the fruits was very much prolonged as expressed in
terms of various quality attributes. The marketability of the fruit stored in ZECC was above
40 % by day 18 as compared to 30.44% on day 12 for the ambient stored samples. The weight
losses of fruits stored in ZECC were around 17% on day 18 whereas a similar loss was
recorded for sample stored under ambient condition by 12
th day. Generally, the ZECC storage
had shown significantreduction in loss of all quality attributes of the fruits. The three pad
materials did not show significant dif erences among them in performances. Likewise, the
lemon and ginger extracts used in the coating showed no dif erence between them in their
performance but had significantly improved achievements as compared to uncoated samples. Further study should be conducted on the properties of those porous materials and on other
locally available cooling pads. Further investigation isalso needed on impact of edible coating
on the nutritional composition and on harvesting methods of white sapote fruit
