Post harvest losses of fruits and vegetables could be reduced if appropriate practices after the harvest until its commercialization are adopted. For this, not only knowledge of the physiological processes of the product is necessary, but also an adequate infrastructure and distribution logistic. The indiscriminate use of chemical products for eradication of plagues and diseases in the cultivation and also in the post harvest period is being substituted successfully by methods that do not cause harm to human beings or to the environment, reasons for which physical treatments (application of heat, cold or ionized radiation) are being intensively investigated. Some parameters related to physical and physiologic quality of the guava "Pedro Sato", were determined in this research, after complete immersion of the fruits in hot water at a temperature of 47 °C during 6 min, and stored at 8 and 22 °C, with medium relative humidity equal to 89%. It was observed that the hot water treatment, in a general way, promoted retardation in the mass loss and the firmness during the storage period, but did not cause a climacteric ascension in the production of CO2 and ethylene.
post-harvest; water immersion bath; ethene
