Abstract
Introduction – Consumers generally underline a gap between the expected quality of the fruit and its perceived one. For mangoes consumed in Europe, mainly imported by sea, this gap can be explained by the decrease of quality during cold storage and the lack of control of the heterogeneity of green mature mango batches. Objectives – To adapt the mode of transport according to the fruit characteristics at the mature green stage, the impact of cold storage in relation to fruit density was assessed on compounds of sensory and nutritional interest. Materials and methods – Low- and high-density fruit were stored for 0 (control) and 15 days at 9 °C (cold storage, CS), and then at 20 °C until later stages of consumption. Results and discussion – During cold storage, fruit slowly softened and starch was partially hydrolyzed into soluble sugars. After the fruits were transferred to 20 °C, the ratio of sucrose to glucose plus fructose increased in CS fruit, whereas it decreased in control fruit during ripening, regardless of the density class. No effect of cold storage was observed on compounds of sensory interest, on the contrary of β-carotene, which was twice lower in CS fruit. High-density ripe fruit had higher total soluble sugar, β-carotene, and trans-β-ionone contents than those of low density, regardless of the storage conditions. Conclusions – The main differences in the sensory quality of mango at the consumption stage were linked to the difference in fruit density at the mature green stage, while the differences in β-carotene would be associated to cold storage.