Passion fruit production has gained popularity among smallholder farmers in Kenya as a high returns
enterprise because of increasing demand for the fruit in the domestic, regional and international
markets. However, passion fruits are very highly perishable with an estimated shelf-life of 7 to 10
days under ambient room conditions. This shortens the marketing period for the fruits resulting in
high postharvest losses, unless measures are undertaken to slow down the deteriorative processes.
Water loss from the fruits during storage results not only in loss of saleable weight but also
aggravates deterioration as it triggers stress ethylene production and reduces the aesthetic value of
the fruits as they shrivel. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is a simple and versatile postharvest
technology that minimizes water loss, slows down metabolic processes and pathological breakdown
due to altered gas composition that disfavors the processes. The objective of this study was to
evaluate the efficacy MAP with a specific focus on activebag® a new product recently availed in the
Kenyan market and promoted as being superior to ordinary polythene bags commonly used for
packaging fruits in retail outlets. Purple passion fruits were harvested from a commercial farm in
Moiben, Uasin Gishu county at two stages of maturity defined as stage two (50-70% turning purple)
and stage three (full purple). These stages were estimated to be 60-65 and 75-80 days after anthesis
(DAA) respectively. The fruits (from each stage) were divided into three similar batches and
subjectedto different treatments. The first batch was packed with activebag®, the second batch with
ordinary polythene bags (commonly used in supermarkets) and the third batch was left unpackaged
to act as the control. All the fruits were left to ripen at ambient room temperature conditions (25 ±
1oC and RH 60 ± 5%). Six fruits from each treatment combination were randomly selected and
specifically numbered for the determination of percentage cumulative weight loss, rate of respiration
and ethylene production after every two days. From the remaining pool, six other fruits were
randomly sampled at three-day intervals for the evaluation of other physicochemical changes
associated with ripening and quality. The parameters determined from juice extracted from the fruits
include hue angle, 0brix, titratable acidity, soluble sugars (fructose, glucose and sucrose), betacarotene,
ascorbic acid and mineral nutrients (calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium).