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Breadfruit

Recommendations for Maintaining Postharvest Quality

Breadfruit, Fruta da Pan, Arbre à Pain

Adel A. Kader

Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis

Maturity & Quality
Maturity Indices

Fully mature fruits are dark-green and their segments are more rounded and smoother than less mature fruits. Latex stains may be present on the skin of mature fruits. Yellowing of the skin indicates over-maturity (partial ripeness). In some cases, fruits are picked when fully ripe and sweet for consumption as a dessert.

Quality Indices
  • Good quality breadfruits are mature-green, firm, with intact stem, and free from defects (such as blemishes, sunscald, cracking, bruising, and insect damage) and decay
  • Uniformity of shape, size, and weight is also important as quality factors
  • Breadfruit pulp (edible portion) contains 25-30% (fresh weight basis) carbohydrates, half of which is starch. The pulp is boiled, baked, fried, or roasted, but never eaten raw. It is also ground into flour that is used in bread-making

Maturity & Quality Photos

Title: Immature

Photo Credit: Adel Kader, UC Davis

Title: Maturity

Photo Credit: Adel Kader, UC Davis

Temperature & Controlled Atmosphere
Optimum Temperature

13 ± 1°C (56 ± 2°F); storage potential = 2-4 weeks, depending on cultivar and maturity stage.

Optimum Relative Humidity

85-95%

Rates of Respiration

The range of respiration rates at 20°C (68°F) is 38 (preclimacteric) to 178 (climacteric peak) ml CO2/kg·hr.

To calculate heat production multiply ml CO2/kg·hr by 440 to get Btu/ton/day or by 122 to get kcal/metric ton/day.

Rates of Ethylene Production

The range of ethylene production at 20°C (68°F) is 0.1 (preclimacteric) to 1.6 (climacteric peak) µl/kg·hr.

Responses to Ethylene

Exposure to 50ppm or higher concentrations of C2H4 for 24 hours at 20°C (68°F) accelerates ripening of breadfruits (as indicated by color changes from green to yellow and softening) and shortens their postharvest-life.

Responses to Controlled Atmospheres (CA)

A CA of 5% O2 + 5% CO2 or use of modified atmosphere packaging (5-8% O2 + 8-10% CO2) may be useful in delaying ripening (softening) and extending postharvest-life of mature-green breadfruits kept within the optimum ranges of temperature and relative humidity.

Disorders
Physiological and Physical Disorders

Chilling Injury. Fruits kept at temperatures below 12°C (54°F) before transfer Disorders to higher temperatures exhibits the following symptoms of chilling injury: brown discoloration of the skin, pulp browning and off-flavor development, and increased susceptibility to decay.

Pathological Disorders

Pathological disorders usually follow mechanical damage and/or chilling injury of breadfruits. Decay may be caused by Phytophthora palmivora or Rhizopus artocarpi or Botryobasidium salmonicola.

Date

May 2001

Use of Materials

The UC Postharvest Technology Center grants users permission to download textual pages (including PDF files) from this World Wide Web site 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 Web site 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. 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 top). Title. Link to the specific Produce Fact Sheet webpage (Accessed date)

Example: Cantwell, M. and T. Suslow. 2002. Lettuce, Crisphead: Recommendations for Maintaining Postharvest Quality. 

http://ucanr.edu/sites/Postharvest_Technology_Center_/Commodity_Resources/Fact_Sheets/Datastores/Vegetables_English/?uid=19&ds=799 (Accessed January 18, 2014).

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