“DELICIOUS PILAFA” APPLE DENSITY CHANGES AS A QUALITY INDEX OF MASS LOSS DEGRADATION DURING STORAGE

Since many years, the mass density of many agricultural products has been used as a quality-sorting criterion, and automatic machines have been developed for that purpose. According to the literature, apple flesh density seems to be related to flesh stiffness, but this behavior is not common among all cultivars. However, there is a lack of information on the evolution of apple density during storage. This study aims to investigate changes of “Delicious Pilafa” apple density during storage. Fruits have been preserved at 0, 10 and 16C. Experiments have been repeated for three successive storage periods. Linear equations between density and mass loss have been developed for two ranges of storage temperatures, 0–10C and 10–16C. Moreover, an efficient multifactor linear equation that relates density to storage time and mass loss has also been calculated. “Delicious Pilafa” apples are characterized by a high mass loss rate during storage. Thus, the relationships developed in this study could be useful for quality assessment of stored fruits according to their mass loss. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Mass loss of “Delicious pilafa” apple during storage can be estimated via fruit density and storage time using the developed equations that refers to a variety of storage conditions. Fruit density can be easily measured as well as storage time can be accurately estimated at a certain moment of storage. Such mass loss correlation is important for “Delicious pilafa” apples, characterized from high mass loss rates during storage and thus this prediction procedure could be very useful as an objective quality criterion during storage. Equations that relate mass loss and storage time with fruit density could be also useful for the estimation of fruit's volume. This is particularly important for respiration rate measurements, where fruits volume is required. Using such relations the estimation of volume is feasible only with weighting and without immersing fruits in water that could affect respiration activity and favor spoilage development.