Abstract
Transportation of sweet cherry fruits to distant markets and further marketing processes often takes approximately 2-3 weeks. The present study investigates the quality changes during this time period at three stages for three sweet cherry cultivars: ‘Early Burlat’, ‘Napoleon’, and ‘0900 Ziraat’. Following pre-cooling, the sweet cherries were placed in modified atmosphere packages and exposed to the following stages for the indicated durations: transportation (T) [8 days at 2 °C and 85% relative humidity (RH)]; distribution center (DC) (4 days at 6.5 °C and 80% RH), and shelf-life (SL) (2 days at 19 °C and 70% RH). Weight losses at the end of the SL stage were 3.11, 3.18, and 2.74%, respectively in ‘Early Burlat’, ‘Napoleon’ and ‘0900 Ziraat’.Fruit firmness decreased after SL as compared to that at other stages and was more remarkable in ‘0900 Ziraat’. Decreased Chroma values which indicates, the intensity or color saturation were observed in all cultivars, whereas decreased hue angle values colours expressed in degrees were observed in the ‘Early Burlat’ and ‘0900 Ziraat’. In addition, a decrease was noted in the titratable acidity of all cultivars at the end of SL. The total soluble solids, total phenolic content, and antioxidant activities were similar for all cultivars at all stages. The visual appearance scores of ‘Early Burlat’ cherries decreased at the end of SL, because of development of pitting on the fruit surface. The fruit quality changes were limited at T and DC stages; however, these changes became more distinctive during the SL period. It was thus concluded that the SL duration and conditions were of the highest significance with regard to maintenance of the sweet cherry fruit quality.
Highlights
Sweet cherry is a member of the genus Prunus and generally grows in mild climates
Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) were placed into cardboard boxes and subjected to the following stages: a) transportation (T; 8 days at 2 ± 0.5 °C and 85 ± 5% relative humidity (RH)) that included the pre-stage at the packing house; b) distribution center (DC; 4 days at 6.5 ± 0.5 °C and 80 ± 5% RH), and c) shelf life (SL; 2 days at 19 ± 0.5 °C and 70 ± 5% RH) to simulate the real conditions faced during marketing
The increases observed in the weight loss of cherry cultivars during T (8 days at 2 °C), DC (4 days at 6.5 °C), and SL (2 days at 19 °C) stages were found to be significant (p
Summary
Sweet cherry is a member of the genus Prunus and generally grows in mild climates. It is a fleshy and nonclimacteric fruit. There is a rapid increase in sweet cherry production and global production sites parallel to the consumer demands. The health benefits of sweet cherry are linked to strong antioxidant activities (Yoo et al, 2010). The antioxidant capacities of sweet cherry fruits depend on the presence of phenolic compounds such as anthocyanins and melatonin (Burkhardt et al, 2001; Vinson et al, 2001). The cultivar type and post-harvest conditions have direct impacts on antioxidant activities and phenolic contents of sweet cherries. While the total phenolic content of ‘Van’ and ‘Tragana’ cultivars increases, that of ‘Burlat’ does not significantly change during storage (Esti et al, 2002)
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