PHYSICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL CRITERIA FOR APRICOT VARIETIES CHARACTERISATION

In order to determine the basis elements and characterise the postharvest evolution of different cultivars we try to appreciate the stability of all the quality criteria, including organoleptic ones. On different apricot cultivars, choosen on their characteristics and their genetic representativity, some physical and biochemical criteria at different stages of ripeness (weight, refractometric index, sugars and acids contents, firmness, ..) were investigated.

The main results show that cultivars are not entirely specified by an individual criteria. On physical criteria, "crushing" appears as a synthetic criteria associated with handling ability. On biochemical criteria, sugar content and titratable acidity are representative of some varietal qualities. A principal component analysis including all criteria shows that variety, ripening stage and storage process are well discriminated.