Effect of postharvest hot-water and heat treatment on quality of date palm (cv. Stamaran)

In this research, fresh harvested date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cv. ‘‘Stamaran’’ was treated with hot water rinsing and dried (HWR) at 50 °C (HWR-50), 60 °C (HWR-60) and 70 °C (HWR-70). The effect of these heat treatments on fruit quality was investigated during 6 months at ambient temperature storage (25 °C of temperature and 75% of humidity). Moisture, pH, color, weight loss, Brix and firmness of the samples were studied. Results indicated that during storage the moisture content and color changed significantly. The major change was observed for firmness where a maximum force for puncture test varied from about 3.5 to 2 N forces for all samples after 6 months of storage at 25 °C. Harvesting at Tamr stage followed by treating the fruits with hot water, drying and storing at 25 °C (Especially HWR-70) showed to be a promising method for maintaining date palm fruit storage quality.