3.4.1. Fruit Puncture Resistance

The ability of harvested fruit to resist a puncturing force provides information on the structural integrity. There was a decline in fruit puncture resistance with storage time for all treatments. The baseline (initial) fruit texture was best retained by fruit packed with nonperforated liners followed by fruit packed in perforated liners and no-liner packaging. At the end of 84 d of cold storage, fruit packed with no-liner lost 28.3% of the initial whole fruit firmness (116.1 ± 2.0 N). However, packing fruit in non-perforated 'Decco' and 'Zoe' liners reduced fruit firmness by 8.0% and 6.8%, respectively. Micro-perforated Xtend® liners minimised fruit firmness by 12.0% compared to 15.8% and 15.5% by 2 mm macro-perforated HDPE and 4 mm macro-perforated HDPE liners, respectively (Table 4). The general decline in texture with storage time can be attributed to fruit softening resulting from enzymatic disintegration of cell wall structure [50]. Similar results reported by Mansouri et al. [51], and Arendese et al. [5] reported declines in whole fruit firmness with storage time for different conventionally packed pomegranate fruit (cv. Hondos-e-Yalabad, Malas-e-Saveh, and Wonderful) in boxes. The higher respiration rate observed in fruit packed with no-liner and macro-perforated liners may have contributed to the higher loss in fruit texture, compared to fruit packed in passively modified atmosphere by non-perforated liners. Drake et al. [52] observed that 'Bartlett' pears at low temperatures of 1 ◦C packed in MAP liners retained more fruit firmness than pear packed under regular atmosphere. The authors reported that storing pears under controlled atmosphere retained fruit firmness throughout cold storage, irrespective of packaging treatment. Similar to our results, Kumar et al. [37] reported that pomegranate (cv. 'Baghwa') packed in Xtend® MAP liners retained better and desirable firmness compared to fruit packed with polypropylene liners and with no-liner stored at 4 ◦C for 120 d.


**Table 4.** Whole fruit puncture resistance and aril firmness for pomegranate fruit packed in different liner bags for 84 d at 5 ◦C and 90% relative humidity (RH).

Mean values with different letters are significantly different (*p* < 0.05) according to Duncan's multiple range test. HDPE: high density polyethylene.
