Avocado Oil Content Analysis

3.2.3. Oil content

Avocado is considered as an important oil producing fruit. Thus oil content can be used to determine maturity. As the avocado fruit mature and ripens the oil content in the mesocarp increases. There is an opposing relationship between water and oil content in the avocado and that implies that as the oil increases by certain amount, water also decreases by the same amount. There is a strong link between oil content and dry matter. Dry matter content can be can be an alternative to oil content when determining maturity of the avocado fruit (Liu et al., 1999).

3.2.4. Dry matter content

Lengthening the maturation period, results in further accumulation of oil content and dry matter content. However the problem with this method

Total titratable acid

Total titratable acid refers to the acidity of the fruit, which is associated with how sour the fruit is. Titratable acidity is the amount of weakly bound hydrogen ions (H+). The acidity of an avocado or of any other fruit can be measured by titratable acid (Kassim, 2012). There is an increase in titratable acid if the storage temperature is high (Tefera et al.,

Anthracnose is caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides and is a major fungal disease problem in South Africa. It is responsible for reducing production of avocados and fruit quality. It causes the biggest losses during transport, storage and marketing. Anthracnose exhibit symptoms such as discoloured circular areas in unripe fruit, fruit rot, dark brown lesions and white spots on lesions. The fungus is capable of destroying the entire box of avocado if one avocado is contaminated with it. However this disease can be controlled by copper-based fungicides (Dorantes et al., 2004).

5. Regulation techniques to sustain avocado fruit quality and prolong postharvest life

The main aim of postharvest treatments, packaging and storage is to maintain the quality of a horticultural commodity for the consumers. Postharvest treatments do not improve quality of a fruit however they maintain quality, thus good preharvest management is essential for improving quality. There is no one universal quality standards for avocado, it depends on the location. For instance, the US standards for Floridian avocado are different from the "California Food and Agricultural