This study has provided some baseline quality information on the post harvest
behaviour of New Zealand passion fruit. Fruit arrived smooth, at which point it did not
taste very sweet. With storage, the appearance changed (fruit became shrivelled) and the
sweetness increased. The respiration rate, indicating metabolic activity of the fruit, was
lowered substantially by lowering the temperature from 20 to 10°C. However, this did not
seem to influence quality much except for a lower weight loss and higher subjective
sensory assessment of taste represented by the balance between sweet and sour for fruit
stored at 20°C.
Changes during storage were most noticeable in the appearance and weight of the
fruit. During storage fruit lost up to 21% of the initial weight. However, this did not result
in a significant weight loss of the edible part of the fruit. The titratable acidity of the
passion fruit decreased and the soluble solids content increased in storage for all
treatments making the fruit more palatable.
At this point no recommendations can be made as to the storage potential of
passion fruit or regarding the optimal storage temperature or packaging. The results do
indicate it may be possible to further reduce weight loss through investigations of other
packaging options. Additionally, it may be worth investigating waxing to reduce water
loss and determining whether or not the pericarp weight loss is necessary for the fruit to
reach its sweet flavour