Effect of Hydro and Cold Room Pre-cooling on Cooling Kinetics and Post-harvest Quality of Amla

Pre-cooling is an important step in the post-harvest management of fresh produces. This study was initiated to evaluate the effect of hydro and cold room pre-cooling on cooling kinetics and post-harvest quality parameters for amla. Amla fruits were hydro cooled using immersion method in chlorinated water (200 ppm) at 3, 5, and 8℃ temperatures, while Cold Room (CR) pre-cooling was done in a display-type refrigerator at 6℃. Comparative cooling kinetics showed the highest cooling rate of 1.83 for 3℃ water temperature among all cooling treatments. In addition, cooling kinetics represents that 3℃ water temperature exhibited the lowest cooling time with maximum cooling coefficient. Analysis of post-harvest quality was done at 3℃ Hydro Cooling (HC) water temperature. Amla fruits of HC at 3℃ and CR cooled at 6℃ were stored at 6 ± 1℃ temperature and 90–95% Relative humidity for 15 days. During the storage study analysis, the HC process of amla fruits showed significantly lower weight loss, higher firmness, and less ascorbic acid degradation. An insignificant effect of HC and CR cooling process were observed for total soluble solid and titrable acidity during the storage. Therefore, HC process can be possibly used for pre-cooling amla fruits, significantly reducing the cooling time and contributing to better postharvest qualities than CR cooling.