Refrigeration Conditions and Fruit Quality for ‘Royal Time’ and ‘Royal Summer’ Peach Cultivars

Abstract

Peach is a very perishable climacteric fruit whose firmness may decay rapidly depending on the temperature. Refrigeration is usually used to delay ripening and maintain fruit quality. However, refrigeration management is often not optimized. This work aims to characterize the refrigeration conditions (temperature and humidity) of 3 peach producers of Beira Interior region, Portugal. Additionally, correlate those conditions with peach quality evolution comparing 2 peach cultivars – Royal Summer and Royal Time – with similar harvest dates but different acidity content. The 3 refrigeration chambers monitored have very distinct conditions of average air temperature, namely 8.29±3.53 °C (local C), 5.50±0.88 °C (local G) and 0.80±0.83 °C (local L). At harvest time ‘Royal Summer’ firmness was 6.61 kgf and ‘Royal Time’ was 5.20 kgf. Fruit firmness decreases faster for ‘Royal Time’ cultivar than for ‘Royal Summer’. The results suggest that in general farmers use inadequate range temperature for a long conservation period. However, for short periods, 7 to 10 days, conditions near those of local G allow good quality fruits maintenance without lacking of ripening or problems of chilling injury, and, simultaneously, save energy that is also not only a desirable international goal but also contributes to decreasing of production costs.