Bruise Damage Susceptibility and Fruit Quality Assessment of Pear

Pankaj B Pathare,Mai Al-Dairi,Adil Al-Mahdouri

doi:10.2174/1874331502115010082

Abstract

Introduction: Bruising is a type of mechanical damage that challenges fresh horticulture production efforts, which occurs mainly due to excessive compression and impact forces during postharvest operations resulting in quality deterioration of fresh produce and reduction in economic value. Objective: This study aims to assess the bruise susceptibility of imported pears and determine its effect on pear quality attributes. Materials and Methods: Each Pyrus communis, variety ‘D'Anjou’ imported pears was impacted by a known mass steel ball at three different drop heights (20, 40, and 60 cm). Bruised fruit was stored at 22°C with 45±5% RH and 10°C with 85±5% RH for 48 hours storage period. Pears were also subjected to different quality analyses like color, firmness, weight loss, and total soluble solids (TSS). The analysis was conducted by performing two factorial balanced analyses of variance (ANOVA). Results: Bruise area, bruise volume, and bruise susceptibility were the highest at higher drop impact (60 cm) on pears stored at 22°C and the lowest were at lower drop impact (20 cm) on pears stored at 10°C. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant impact of drop height and temperature on bruising susceptibility. Besides, statistics showed a significant impact of the studied factors (temperature and drop height) on quality parameters of pears such as lightness (L*), redness-greenness (a*), weight loss, and firmness after 48 hours of storage Conclusion: Mechanical damages like bruising can be affected by many factors like storage temperature and impact level force. Finally, it was concluded that mechanical damages like bruising can be affected by many factors like storage temperature and impact force. Overall, this study can consider as a guideline for workers during postharvest operations and handling.

Highlights

Bruising is a type of mechanical damage that challenges fresh horticulture production efforts, which occurs mainly due to excessive compression and impact forces during postharvest operations resulting in quality deterioration of fresh produce and reduction in economic value
The results showed that the bruised area and volume of pears were significantly influenced by drop height (p
The mean of bruise area and volume of pear bruised by an impact from 60 cm drop height and stored at 22°C differed significantly with bruised pear’s means stored at both storage conditions (Figs. 3 and 4)

Summary

Introduction

Bruising is a type of mechanical damage that challenges fresh horticulture production efforts, which occurs mainly due to excessive compression and impact forces during postharvest operations resulting in quality deterioration of fresh produce and reduction in economic value. Pear fruit is consumed globally and can be utilized as a processed product like drinks, jam, and dried preserved fruit [1]. High sugar content is almost the main important factor in pear fruit [3]. The texture of pear is another quality parameter linked with a pear variety which depends on its flesh cell specification and other different factors like cell wall strength and thickness, cell size, and water content [2]. Pears are extremely perishable fresh produce compared to apples as they are sensitive against postharvest operations like harvesting, reloading, handling, and transport [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion