'Tendral' melon postharvest behaviour – traditional storage vs refrigeration

Abstract

Tendral is a winter melon noted for its relatively long storage life but few postharvest studies have been done, despite of its relatively high commercial value on Christmas in Portugal and Spain. The objective of this work is to study the postharvest behaviour on traditional storage -hanged in netted bags and included on straw in a fresh and dark room - and refrigerated conditions at 12 ºC and ca. 70% relative humidity. The results pointed out that storage period, weight loss, rheological and colour parameters are highly correlated. Quality criteria were mainly storage period dependent.