Fruit Physiological Disorders

Return to Main Fruit Physiological Disorders

Pomegranate: Chilling Injury

Page

Chilling Injury. Pomegranate

Occurence
The incidence and severity of chilling injury depend upon storage temperature and duration. The minimum safe temperature is 5°C (41°F) for up to 8 weeks.

Importance
Chilling injury can be a major cause of deterioration of pomegranates during marketing following exposure to temperatures below 5°C (41°F) during storage and transport for longer than 4 weeks.

Symptoms
External symptoms include brown discoloration (scald) of the skin, pitting, and increased susceptibility to decay. Internal symptoms include brown discoloration of the white segments separating the arils and pale color (loss of red color) of the arils.

Physiology
Pomegranate are susceptible to chilling injury if stored longer than one month at temperatures between their freezing point (-3°C or 26.6°F) and 5°C (41°F). Upon transfer to higher temperatures, respiration and ethylene production rates increase and other chilling injury symptoms appear; their severity increases with lower temperatures and longer durations of chilling exposure. External and internal browning is related to oxidation of phenolics by polypherol oxidase. Storage in a 2% oxygen atmosphere at temperatures below 5°C (41°F) reduces severity of chilling injury symptoms.

Control
Avoid exposure of pomegranates to temperatures below 5°C (41°F).

References
Elyatem, S. M. and A. A. Kader. 1984. Post-harvest physiology and storage behavior of pomegranate fruits. Scientia Horticulturae 24:287-298.

Kader, A. A., A. Chordas, and S. Elyatem. 1984. Responses of pomegranates to ethylene treatment and storage temperature. California Agriculture 38(7 & 8):14-15.

Date

1984

Use of Materials

The UC Postharvest Technology Center grants users permission to download textual pages (including PDF files) from this website for personal use or to reproduce them for educational purposes, but credit lines and copyright notices within the pages must not be removed or modified.

Except for these specified uses, no part of the textual materials available on the UC Postharvest Technology Center website may be copied, downloaded, stored in a retrieval system, further transmitted or otherwise reproduced, stored, disseminated, transferred or used, in any form or by any means, except as permitted herein or with the University of California's prior written agreement. Request permission from UC Postharvest Technology Center @ postharvest@ucdavis.edu. Distribution for commercial purposes is prohibited.

The information in this fact sheet represents our best understanding of the current state of knowledge at the time of the latest update, and does not represent an exhaustive review of all research results. Links to any of these UC Postharvest Technology Center pages are permitted, but no endorsement of the linking site or products mentioned in the linking page is intended or implied by such a link.

How to Cite

Author(s) names. Initial publication or update date (located at the bottom). Title. Link to the specific webpage (accessed date)

Example: Crisosto, C. H. and E. J. Mitcham. 2020. Asian Pear: Flesh Spot Decay (FSD). http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/Commodity_Resources/Fruit_Physiological_Disorders/?uid=11&ds=822 (Accessed March 25, 2020).

Top of page