The individual influences of high CO₂ on chilling injury suppression of 'Merah Delima' papaya fruit

'Merah Delima' papaya is chilling-sensitive products, and injured when stored below threshold-temperature. Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) is the promising method to reduce chilling injury (CI) because it creates gas composition with low O₂ and high CO₂ inside the packed product. Too high CO₂ concentration inside the packed one causes physiological damage of fruit. This study was carried out to investigate the individual effect of high CO₂ in suppressing CI in 'Merah Delima' papaya fruit. Papaya was stored at 10 °C for 16 days under high CO₂ concentration of 4%, 6% CO₂ with 21% O₂, Balance N₂) and ambient air as the control. After storage at 10 °C, fruits were transferred to ambient air at temperature 25 °C for 1 week to evaluate the progress of CI symptoms. Quality parameters including weight loss, firmness as physical indices, skin colour as sensory evaluation and electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde (MDA) content as CI indices were evaluated. The result of study showed that individual high CO₂ concentration reduced development of CI in papaya fruit compared to ambient air. However, too high CO₂ concentration did not give beneficial effect on CI suppression of 'Merah Delima' papaya fruit