Ginger is Alive

post harvest management of ginger

The aim of good postharvest handling, storage and transport is to maintain quality and shelf life and
provide a healthy, safe product to consumers.

Transport and storage compatibility with other produce stored in the same room or transported in
the same truck should be checked for ginger just as for all fresh produce.
This includes ethylene, airflow requirements, temperature, and humidity range.

The following table provides an overview over the most important requirements after harvest.

Key Messages
Process Type of Ginger Best Practice

Keep rhizomes between 22-26°C with

Curing Mature Ginger
good airflow throughout

Keep rhizomes at 12.5°C (this may

Mature and New
Storage and transport temperature require storage room or transport
Season Ginger
temperatures to be set at 10°C)

Keep humidity between 70-75% RH, do

Mature Ginger
not store or transport below 65% RH

Humidity Range

Keep humidity between 90-95% RH, do

New Season Ginger
not store or transport below 80% RH

Mature and New The CO2 content of the circulating air

Air flow requirements
Season Ginger should not exceed 0.4 vol.%

Mature and New Keep away from other food products

Ethylene
Season Ginger and gas and combustion engines

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Cure it
Curing of mature ginger rhizomes will help reduce postharvest weight loss and decay: Air or fan dry
rhizomes after washing, sanitising and trimming at an average temperature of 22-26°C and 70-75%
relative humidity (RH), allowing for good airflow, for several days to let the skin thicken and the cut
surfaces heal (callus formation).

New season ginger does not require curing. New rhizomes should be brought in from the field, washed
and brought down to optimum storage temperature of 12-14oC (measured inside roots) as soon as
possible.

The Good Oil

When storing or transporting ginger it is important to retain the content of essential oils.
These substances, together with other components, such as fatty oils and tannins, deter-
mine the odour and flavour and thus quality. Essential oils are readily volatilised and the
seasoning action of ginger is then reduced. Volatilization of the essential oils is primarily
determined by temperature. The higher the ambient or storage temperature, the quicker
the essential oils are volatilised. This may be recognised by an intense ginger odour in the
store or truck.

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Keep it cool
Storage and transport temperature for all types of ginger

At 12.5°C rhizome temperature, good quality ginger will remain in marketable condition for at least
3 months. To achieve the rhizome temperature, the cool room or transport temperatures may have to be
set at 10°C.

Ginger is very sensitive to chilling injury and should not be stored below 12.5°C (rhizome temperature).
Cold temperatures cause pitting and sunken spots on the rhizome surface, shrivelling, softening, flesh
darkening, and ultimately decay. The amount of damage depends on the temperature and length of
exposure. Non-cured rhizomes are more susceptible to chilling injury than cured rhizomes.

2 weeks of exposure to 7°C will result in significant damage to rhizomes that are not cured.

Holding ginger at high average temperatures, 25-30°C results in excessive moisture loss, surface
shrivelling, and eventually sprouting (if the humidity is high enough e.g. in liners or pre-packs or in the
tropical wet season). Shelf life under these temperatures is less than 1 month.

Excessively high storage temperatures cause the essential oils contained in the ginger to volatilise readily,
diminishing quality.

Treat mature ginger like ‘hard produce’.

Treat new season, young ginger like fresh, tropical produce.

Relative Humidity

Mature ginger

Dehydration of ginger occurs under low relative humidity (RH) conditions of less than 65% RH. If RH is too
low, shrivelling of rhizomes becomes noticeable once more than 10% of the initial harvest weight is lost at
substantial cost to the grower or retailer.
Mature ginger stored at 22°C (too warm) and 70% RH will lose about 20% of its weight over 3 months.
Weight loss is also associated with the loss of essential oils and darkening of skin. It is therefore important
to maintain the optimum temperature ranges as much as possible.
Surface mould will begin to grow at a RH above 90% and sprouting will be stimulated, especially if the
temperature is above 16°C and RH is high at the same time (e.g. in plastic bags or at times at ambient
conditions).
To minimise weight loss and avoid surface mould, a compromise RH range of between 70-75% RH is
recommended. The minimum RH should be 65%.

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 New season ginger

Chilled new season ginger roots are best kept for only around 10-14 days (up to 3 weeks if packaged in
suitable film bags). They need to be marketed accordingly as chilled fresh produce. Keep the relative humid-
ity between 90-95% RH, and do not store or transport below 80% RH.

Other storage and trasnport considerations for all types of ginger

Self-heating

Due to the intensity of respiration and associated oxygen consumption, ginger rhizomes have a tendency to
self-heat and create elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations during storage and transport. The level
of carbon dioxide they produce depends on ginger volumes in relation to available airspace and conditions.
Good ventilation (fresh air supply) is recommended during storage and shipping (maintaining the right
relative humidity may be challenging).

Fresh air supply around ginger must be controlled in such a way that the CO2 content of the circulating air
does not exceed 0.4 vol.%.

Overly high moisture and temperature around stored ginger create the risk of self-heating especially in
densely packed and stored ginger. This can also be an issue if plastic packaging is used. Fast quality loss
will occur!

Ethylene and mixed loads

Ginger has low sensitivity to ethylene in the surrounding air; the rate of ethylene production by the rhizomes
is also very low (below 0.1 µl/kg*h). Still, gas forklifts should not be used around fresh produce as exhausts
contain ethylene, which is, an ‘aging agent’ and may affect ginger if concentrations are high. Fresh fruit can
also release high levels of ethylene and, in a closed environment, this may affect ginger in spite of it’s low
sensitivity. Therefore ginger should not be stored with fruit, if possible.
The scent of ginger results from its content of essential ginger oil and the bitingly pungent taste results from
the content of gingerol. Because of the readily volatilised essential oils, ginger should always be transported
and stored separately from foodstuffs (e.g. coffee or tea), which readily absorb foreign odours.

More information
Other fact sheets and resources from this series include,
• Keep it Healthy - post harvest disorder and disease management
• Keep it Safe - food safety management for ginger
• Action Planner - a guide to post-harvest management of Australian ginger

Australian Ginger Industry Association

www.australianginger.org.au

The development of this fact sheet was funded by the RIRDC Ginger R&D Program
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