FRUIT QUALITY OF VESUVIAN APRICOTS HARVESTED AT DIFFERENT RIPENING STAGES AFTER A COLD-STORAGE PERIOD

The present study aimed to investigate the influence of a cold-storage period on some qualitative parameters of Vesuvian apricot cultivars using destructive and non-destructive methods. Fruit harvest was performed at three different ripening stages, based on visual evaluations of the ground color of fruit skin. Fruit firmness and soluble solids content (SSC) were measured both destructively and non-destructively (Vis/NIR commercial device). Cultivar-specific sub-models were built using an independent fruit sample at-harvest. The same destructive and non-destructive measurements were also performed on fruit samples after a cold-storage period (7 days at 4°C). The robustness of the models was tested in predicting SSC and firmness of both fruit at-harvest and after the storage. SSC models appeared fairly accurate when used on fruit at-harvest and, in most of the cultivars, also on cold-stored fruit. On the other hand, the accuracy of the SSC models dramatically decreased from fruit at-harvest to cold-stored fruit in some of the tested cultivars. The firmness models had a very poor accuracy when used on both at-harvest and cold-stored fruit. Further researches are needed to improve the accuracy of the firmness models and to build more robust SSC models.