Pineapple fruits that had been planted in a village Suru beside Asirawo in Osun State, Nigeria were used for this study to find out the effect of field heat removal and pre-transportation treatment on the shelf life of pineapple fruits. The study was carried out in the Crop Production laboratory of Department of Crop Production, Federal University of Technology, Minna in 2012.The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design with tree replications. Three fruits were used per replication of the 4 treatment groups. The groups were made up of i) Control -no water or oil treatment, ii) 1hr of fruits cooling in cold water, iii) 2hrs of fruits cooling in cold water and iv) 5hrs of fruits cooling and v) shea butter coating of fruits. Data on the following parameters were collected (i) Moisture loose in fruits while in storage (ii) Color change (iii) Taste of fruits and (iv) fruits aroma. For the taste parameter the Likkait scale was used to judge the fruits. These were subjected to statistical analysis. The result of this work has demonstrated that an integrated knowledge of the effect of field heat removal and pre-transportation of shelf life on pineapple fruits is required in order to understand and also predict the best pineapple fruits for consumption. The shear butter coated pineapple fruits was the sweetest. Several recommendations and suggestions were made for further studies
Keywords: Field Heat Removal, Pineapple Fruits, Shea Butter Coating
