Abstract
The objective of this work was to evaluate the visual and chemical quality of tangerines after mechanical damage by impacts. The tangerine cultivars Montenegrina and Rainha were submitted to different degrees of impact and evaluated for decay and oleocellosis, loss of fresh weight, total soluble solids, total titratable acidity and ascorbic acid degradation, as well as for epicarp color changes. Experiments with three replicates and experimental units of six fruit for each cultivar were done in a completely randomized design. Impact produced qualitative internal and minor external changes on tangerines. The main modifications produced by impact on the fruit were losses of citric acid and soluble solids, which increased the solid:acid ratio, and losses of ascorbic acid. 'Montenegrina' tangerines are more susceptible to internal quality damage than 'Rainha'.
Highlights
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of citrus fruit, with 20 million megagrams per year (Instituto FNP, 2008)
According to Pio et al (2005), tangerines and their hybrids are highly susceptible to injuries due to harvest and post harvest handling and transportation, and these injuries serve as an entrance to pathogens
Impact treatments on tangerines did not enhance the incidence of decay in 'Montenegrina' and 'Rainha' tangerines
Summary
Brazil is the world’s largest producer of citrus fruit, with 20 million megagrams per year (Instituto FNP, 2008). Horticultural products are prone to the action of static and dynamic forces during the operations and to processing to which they are submitted (Couto et al, 2002). Mechanical damage is extremely common during fruit handling, and is defined as plastic deformation, superficial rupture and destruction of vegetable tissue due to external forces (Sanches et al, 2008). The effects of mechanical injury in citrus fruit are not always as evident as they are in other species. In apples and similar fruit, tissue oxidation shows the injury, and the fruit loss is almost immediate. There is less concern in citrus fruit handling to avoid mechanical damage to fruit
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