How We Keep Our Mangoes Safe from Fruit Flies and Pests
We fuss so much about the colour and the taste of the mango but there’s a lot of hard work that goes into the making of the perfect mango. It’s not just about the cultivation; even after the fruit is picked off a tree, it needs to be tended to. You don’t just pack a crate of mangoes and ship it off. It’s not that simple. The king of fruit is delicate and needs royal treatment to make sure it reaches our doorsteps with all its goodness intact.
Post-harvestation is an important phase when it comes to the mango and if utmost care is not taken at this time, chances are that taste and the quality might get affected. And while there are many shortcut methods to keep fruits safe, there’s just one bankable option that does not include the use of chemicals. It’s called the vapour heat treatment.
Once mangoes are harvested, there’s a possibility that they might be infected by fruit flies and other pests which cause irreparable damage to it. Hence, disinfection treatments like the vapour heat method have emerged as a common practice to preserve tropical fruits. As the name suggests, the vapour heat treatment is a system that kills eggs and larvae of fruit flies or any other insects which act as parasites with the use of vapour and heat. What makes this method so trusted by farmers the world over is that it does not tinker with the freshness or the taste of the fruit. But how exactly does the vapour heat treatment work?
During this method, the plucked mango is exposed to hot saturated water vapour at a specific temperature — anywhere between 40 to 50 degree celsius. The rising heat is what kills insect eggs or larvae. Through all of this, the temperature is controlled to ensure that there is no change in the colour of the fruit, tissue damage, or irregular softening. After the heat treatment, there’s a cooling period involved. The whole process takes approximately 15 to 16 hours. It’s important that the treatment is closely monitored and every mango is uniformly exposed to the vapour heat. A little miscalculation can cause a lot of damage to the fruit like accelerated decaying.
While every authentic organic farmer swears by the vapour heat treatment, it’s essential for exporters. Tropical fruits like the mango undergo stringent quarantine inspections in the country importing them. There is no compromise here because importers have to ensure that pests present in these fruits do not thrive and find a way to breed and multiply in their nation. Countries in the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, among others are extremely particular about sterilisation of fruits. They fear that if these fruit flies make way into their country, they will attack their produce.
Mango producers then have to adhere to strict international standards if they want to export their fruit. The vapour heat treatment then is like a ticket to the land of opportunities for farmers. It’s the safest way to pass the quarantine inspection without compromising on the taste of the mango.
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