Effect of Storage Duration on Physico-Chemical and Microbiological Quality of Fruit Served in Bahir Dar City, North-West Ethiopia

Mekonen Tekliye*^a, Tadele Andargie^b
aBahir Dar University, Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Engineering, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
^bBahir Dar University, Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Food Engineering,  Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

A B S T R A C T
Fruit is one of the major dietary sources of various antioxidant phytocompounds for humans. For physico-chemical and microbiological safety of fruits, a total of 120 fruit samples were collected. The fruits investigated in this study area were avocado, papaya, pineapple, and mango. The mean pH of fruits in this study ranged from (4.01±0.008, 4.07±0.006, 4.10±0.003, 4.12±0.005 and 4.15±0.002) as in the case of Pine-apple juices, to (5.00±0.05, 5.01±0.18, 5.04±0.14, 5.06±0.17 and 5.15±0.12) in avocados juices extracted  from fruit stored for zero, one, two, three and four days respectively. At zero day of storage, fruits contained the maximum (0.204±0.06%) titratable acidity in pine-apple fruit while the minimum (0.10±0.01%) at 4th day of storage in mango fruit. The maximum total soluble solids (13.77±0.59%) were observed in papaya fruit stored at four days. The maximum mean reducing sugar (12.06±1.61%) was recorded at fourth days of storage in papaya fruit. In fruits stored at zero days had the highest content of ascorbic acid (86.03±0.15 mg/100g) in papaya fruit whereas fruits stored at fourth days had the lowest values (8.01±0.23 mg/100g) in mango fruit during the storage. The mean total viable count was highest in papaya fruit stored at 4th days (4.6± 0.04 x106 cfu/ml) and lowest in pine-apple fruit stored at zero day (1.2± 0.01 x 102 cfu/ml). The amount of yeast had increased from 8.0± 0.02 x 102 cfu/ml in pine-apple fruit stored at zero days to 1.01± 0.02 x 105 cfu/ml in papaya fruit stored for four days. Similarly, the amount of mold had also increased from 3.1± 0.04×102 cfu/ml in mango fruit stored at zero days to 6.1± 0.05 x105 cfu/ml in papaya fruit stored for four days. Therefore, the effect of storage duration should be considered in fruit juice vending houses and there should be proper education of the vendors and consumers on proper storage procedure to minimize nutritional losses during storage and adequate monitoring of the quality of fruits during storage.
Keywords: Storage duration, physico-chemical quality, Microbiological safety, Avocado, Papaya, Pineapple, and Mango fruits, Bahir Dar