POSTHARVEST TREATMENTS OF HIGH RELATIVE HUMIDITY (RH) AND LOW TEMPERATURES REDUCED THE INCIDENCE OF SUPERFICIAL FLAVEDO NECROSIS (NOXAN) OF ‘SHAMOUTI’ ORANGES (C. sinensis, Osbeck)

Superficial Flavedo Necrosis of ‘Shamouti’ oranges (C. sinensis, Osbeck), locally known as noxan, is a serious physiological peel blemish in Israel. This blemish appears during the postharvest life of the fruit as superficial pits on the flavedo. The main damage is because the blemishes cannot be culled during the packinghouse handling, but appears mainly later forcing the exporter to repack the fruit abroad at a rather high cost.

The objective of this work was to reduce the incidence of noxan developed after harvest by keeping the fruit under high RH and low temperature by packaging the or by keeping the fruit in a high RH storage room.