METHODS TO ASSESS FRUIT QUALITY FOCUSING ON NON-DESTRUCTIVE METHODS

G. Costa, M. Noferini, G. Fiori, N. Berthod, S. Besse, J. Rossier
In apricot (Prunus armeniaca), fruit quality at consumption and shelf-life potential are strictly related to the ripening stage at harvest. Although establishing the optimal harvest time is a crucial issue, this is normally performed on the basis of fruit size, skin color and grower experience. The internal quality traits, such as flesh firmness (FF), soluble solids content (SSC), titrable acidity (TA) and aroma are commonly used to evaluate fruit quality and ripeness. However, these parameters which are perceived by the consumer as fruit global quality are seldom considered. Up to now, several studies have been carried out on fruit quality assessment by using traditional methods, which are cheap and fast, but do not consider other quality traits, as antioxidant power, aroma volatile emission, soluble sugars and organic acids content. To better characterize fruit quality, extensive research has been focused on the development of non-destructive techniques, in particular on visible/Near Infra Red spectroscopy (vis/NIRs) that can be efficiently used for determining traditional fruit quality traits and concentration of the main organic acids and sugars. In addition, this technique allows to define a new maturity index, called Index of “Absorbance Difference” (IAD), strictly related to fruit ethylene emission and ripening stage. The IAD was used to establish, in field conditions, the optimal harvest time related to the ripening stage at harvest and to characterize fruit ripening as affected by bearing shoots, fruit position on the tree in order to decide the best training system and pruning techniques to reduce fruit ripening heterogeneity on the tree.
Here is reported on the research activity carried out on apricot cultivars grown in Valais (Sion, Switzerland). The obtained results showed that the IAD was able to group fruit according to their ripening stage. Fruit graded according the IAD were used for a consumer test to verify their acceptance.
Costa, G., Noferini, M., Fiori, G., Berthod, N., Besse, S. and Rossier, J. (2012). METHODS TO ASSESS FRUIT QUALITY FOCUSING ON NON-DESTRUCTIVE METHODS . Acta Hortic. 966, 275-284
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.966.44
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.966.44
index of absorbance difference, ripening, modeling, consumer test
English

Acta Horticulturae