Influence of film wrapping and UV irradiation on cactus pear quality after storage

'Gialla' cultivar (cv) cactus pear fruit were either exposed or not to ultraviolet light (UV-C at 254 nm) and packaged or not with a polyolefinic film before cold storage for 1 month at 9°C plus 1 week of simulated shelf life conditions at 20°C (SL). UV exposure did not affect fruit weight loss, while wrapping significantly reduced these losses to a quarter after cold storage and a tenth at the end of SL, with respect to unpackaged fruit. The overall visual rating of fruit appearance was higher in all the packaged fruit, while those unwrapped were affected by extensive skin shrinkage at the end of both the storage and SL periods. Skin damage, attributed to chilling injury and UV exposure, was higher in unwrapped fruits, in which the onset of these was significantly reduced even when the fruit was subjected to UV. The percentage decay was reduced neither by UV exposure nor by wrapping and reached values of about 10% at the end of SL In all cases. Internal quality attributes and fruit taste were neither affected by wrapping nor by UV application. Wrapping the fruit with polyolefinic film had a beneficial effect in preserving fruit freshness and colour brightness, which were lost in unwrapped fruit. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.