| Summary: | In this research, fresh harvested date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) cv. “Stamaran” was treated with hot water rinsing and dried (HWR) at 50 °C (HWR-50), 60 °C (HWR-60) and 70 °C (HWR-70). The effect of these heat treatments on fruit quality was investigated during 6 months at ambient temperature storage (25 °C of temperature and 75% of humidity). Moisture, pH, color, weight loss, Brix and firmness of the samples were studied. Results indicated that during storage the moisture content and color changed significantly. The major change was observed for firmness where a maximum force for puncture test varied from about 3.5 to 2 N forces for all samples after 6 months of storage at 25 °C. Harvesting at Tamr stage followed by treating the fruits with hot water, drying and storing at 25 °C (Especially HWR-70) showed to be a promising method for maintaining date palm fruit storage quality.
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