Studies on Efficiency of Selected Multipurpose Cold Storages

Studies on Efficiency Of Selected Cold Storages regarding Storage Of Potato, Fruits And Vegetables vividly expressed that cold storages could play an important role in the preservation of perishables especially fruits and vegetables. We found that the most obvious losses after harvest were caused by mechanical injury, decay and aging. Losses in moisture, sugars and starches were less obvious, but they adversely affected consumer's acceptability including colour and weight. We could also find that rough handling and holding at undesirably high temperature or too low temperature increased losses and such losses can be substantially reduced by adopting proper storage conditions. Among seventeen commodities selected for the experiment we could classify them in to three groups as per duration of storage. Group I: Very long term storage group (>3months): The horticultural produce placed in this group are potato, beetroot, carrot and apple. Most of the vegetables belonging to this group were underground storage tubers with less moisture content. Group II: Long term storage group (2-3months): Commodities placed in this group are cabbage, tomato, chilli, pointed gourd, mandarin, grapes