Effect of hot water treatment on some post-harvest qualities of stored sweet potato tuber

Abstract

Postharvest losses constitute a major problem for sweet potato tuber production worldwide. The losses are often initiated by pathogen infection causing sprouting and rotting during storage. Sweet potato tuber sprouting and rotting causes loss of weight, firmness and undesirable appearance, affecting market value. Hot water treatment (HWT) can potentially preserve sweet potato tuber. The current study investigated the effect of hot water treatment on some post harvest quality of stored sweet potato tuber. The qualities studied included weight loss, thickness, firmness and appearance using standard methods. All samples were treated in HWT (50oC) for 10-, 15- and 20-minutes’immersion, and stored at a room temperature of 27 ± 2oC for 4 weeks. The results showed that all the treatment times (10, 15 and 20 minutes) had significant effects (p < 0.05) on the quality of stored sweet potato tubers. Application of HWT for 10 minutes maintained tuber qualities- weight loss, thickness and firmness (p < 0.05), and resulted in the best appearance. It is showed that HWT at 500C for 10 minutes’ had great potential in extending the shelf-life and preserving the post harvest qualities of sweet potato tuber