Mechanical Damage Of Strawberry During Harvest And Postharvest Operations

Strawberry is a non-climacteric fruit with a limited harvesting period. Because of high susceptibility to mechanical damage, strawberry has a small postharvest life. In this research, an experiment was designed to study the mechanical damage phenomena in strawberry during the harvest and postharvest operations together with some physical properties of strawberry. Influences of some other factors such as variety, fruit position in the box as well as box position on the truck were also investigated. Results indicated that the variety, operation stage, fruit position in the box, and box position on the truck, had significant effects on the extent of the fruits‘ mechanical damage. Maximum damage index was related to picking stage. The variety Gaviota showed more susceptibility to mechanical damage than Selva. The maximum damage occurred at the bottom rows in the boxes. Furthermore, it was observed that the higher the position of a box on the truck, the more the susceptibility of fruits would be to mechanical damage.