Effect of Different Ethylene-scavenging Packaging on Extending Shelf Life and Maintaining Fruit Quality of Guava (Psidium guajava L.)

One of the major problems with guava fruit is the huge postharvest losses due to quality issues, accelerated by its perishable nature. The current study was conducted to investigate the effect of active packaging sheets produced by partially burned rice husk charcoal powder (T₁), sepiolite clay powder (T₂), and composites prepared by rice husk charcoal and sepiolite clay (T₃), on the quality and shelf life of climacteric guava fruit. The low-cost, natural, and non-toxic ethylene absorber packaging aids were produced as lining sheets to use in guava packaging boxes. Besides, empty material sheets (T₄) and potassium permanganate powder sheets (T₅) were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. T₂ guava samples exhibited an acceptable shelf-life level (>50%) until 20 days (62.5%), while others represented a lower-than-acceptable level after 20 days of storage at 12±3 °C and 85–90% RH. All the samples maintained an acceptable shelf life for 16 days, however, reduced rapidly after 16 days, except T₂. Sepiolite clay treatments showed the lowest peel color change, the highest ascorbic acid content, and the highest firmness during the storage period. In addition, low disease incidence, disease severity, and higher marketability were also observed in T₂ compared to others. The weight loss and total soluble solids (TSS) reduction were not controlled by T₂ due to the hygroscopic nature of the material. The composite treatment, negative control, and positive control samples maintained higher TSS and lower weight loss values than both T₁ and T₂. In conclusion, the active packaging sheet produced by sepiolite clay powder is a promising packing aid as an ethylene absorber to produce active packaging for maintaining quality and extending the shelf life of guava at 12±3 °C and 85–90% RH conditions.