Effect of Harvest Maturity, Storage, and Cultivar on Strawberry Fruit Aroma Volatiles

Abstract

`Annapolis', `Cavendish', `Honeoye', `Kent', and `Micmac' strawberry fruit (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch.) were harvested underripe (75% to 90% red) or fully ripe. Fruit were stored at 0C for 5 days followed by 2 days at 15C. Volatiles were trapped onto Tenax-GR from the headspace over fruit before and after storage and analyzed using GC-MS. Volatile esters identified in headspace included methyl and ethyl butanoate, methyl and ethyl hexanoate, methyl and ethyl 3-methylbutanoate, 3-methylbutyl acetate, hexyl acetate, and methyl 2-methylbutanoate. Headspace concentrations of volatile esters over freshly harvested strawberries averaged 1.3 and 6.8 μmol·m–3 for underripe and ripe fruit, respectively. After 7 days of storage, volatile concentrations increased in both underripe and ripe fruit to 6.3 and 12.2 μmol·m–3, respectively. There were quantitative and qualitative differences between cultivars. Total volatile concentrations were 16.0, 8.1, 5.7, 2.4, and 0.9 μmol·m–3 in the headspace over `Annapolis', `Kent', `Micmac', `Cavendish', and `Honeoye', respectively. `Annapolis' had the highest concentrations of methyl and ethyl butanoate, while `Micmac' had the highest concentrations of methyl and ethyl hexanoate. Volatile concentrations at harvest increased 5.7, 1.9, 1.7, 1.4, and 1.3 times during storage in `Kent', `Annapolis', `Micmac', `Cavendish', and `Honeoye', respectively. Results indicate that strawberry fruit continue to produce aroma volatiles after harvest.