Styrofoam Packaging as Alternative of the Afghan Traditional “Gangina” Container to Extend Quality of ‘Taifi’ Grapes in Room Temperature Storage

摘要

Grape cultivation is one of the major industries that contributes almost half of all the fruit production in Afghanistan. Due to a lack of controlled atmosphere storage plants, the Afghan farmers store grapes in a traditional mud-based container called “Gangina”. Although this pot is beneficial for grape preservation, it is fragile and heavy in weight. The present study compared storage of ‘Taifi’ grapes in packages of paper cartons, perforated polyethylene bags, Gangina and styrofoam boxes or leaving them open at room ambient. Two styrofoam thicknesses (2 cm, 4 cm) in combination with or without wrapping the clusters in perforated polyethylene bags were further tested. During 50 d storage, styrofoam box consistently maintained the berry freshness, showed the lowest weight loss and no change to the soluble solids content. Regardless of wrapping, 4 cm thickness of styrofoam was more effective retarding the weight loss. On the other hand, decay was the greatest in polyethylene and styrofoam packages. The practice of berry sterilization, usually not applied by farmers nor adopted in this study, would be necessary before considering styrofoam as light container for ‘Taifi’ grape preservation.