Indonesia Conference Directory

Abstract : Strawberry is one kind of fruit which has very thin skin, so it is very easy to be damaged as the effect of mechanical force, this is one of the main problem in postharvest of strawberry fruit. The condition of road in Indonesia often occur a traffic bump (markah kejut) across the road, this will make some shocking force that may affect the damage of strawberry fruit during transportation. The effect of shock damage on the strawbery fruit may effect the respiration rate of that fruit and also other physical properties. The following research was intended to find out the effect of duration of shocking and layer position in the box on the physical properties and respiration rate of strawberry fruit. The research was done using a selft built shocking apparatus consist of circular drop table 25 cm in diameter, 300 gram weight made from steel, drived using electric motor in 60 rpm with the drop height of 1,5 cm. Wood box of 24 x 19.5 x 18 cm with the weight of 1,082 kg to place the sample of strawberry fruit. This apparatur was built to model the shocking force resulted from the road traffic bump during transportation of strawberry. Three different shocking time along with three different layer position of strawberry fruit in the box were investigated in three replication, totaly 27 treatment combinations were done. It was need around 600 grams of strawberry fruit in one of treatment combination. It was found that both the duration of shocking and layer position in the box were significantly affect some of physical properties of the contained strawberry fruit, such as respiration rate, weight loss, brix content, firmness, and lightness of the fruit. The rate of change of physical properties of the strawberry fruit could be described appropriately using kinetics model of the zero or one order. It was also found that generally strawberry fruit subjected to shocking force would damage faster than ones without shocking force.