Assessment of Rheological Properties of Round Gourd under Different Storage Conditions

The study was conducted to ascertain rheological properties of round gourd under cold storage conditions and was compared with the normal conditions. The cold storage developed at the Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (GBPUAT), Pantnagar and was employed for the effective storage of round gourd. Some samples of round gourd were stored under cold storage (control) conditions and some were stored under normal (ambient) conditions. The study involved the evaluation of rheological properties viz. physiological weight loss, volume shrinkage, total soluble salts (TSS), firmness, stiffness and pH. The volume shrinkage (%) of round gourd ranged from 0% during initial to 58% for sample A and 0% to 63% for sample B at ambient temperature condition, whereas, it ranged from 0% during initial to 33% for both the samples at control condition. TSS ranged from 3.00 to 5.30 and from 3.50 to 4.10 for ambient and control condition respectively. pH ranged from 7.80 to 8.50 and from 7.10 to 7.65 for ambient and control condition respectively. It was investigated that the physiological weight loss of round gourd was substantially maximum at ambient temperature compared to the weight loss at cold storage temperature. The effect of storage period of round gourd on the weight loss was highly significant. The storage days exhibit a highly significant effect on volume shrinkage of round gourd samples. The l, a, b values depends on the color change of fruits and vegetables, the sample color changes significantly from initial day to 12th day of storage period. The ripening stage was faster in ambient condition as compared to cold storage condition.