Apple Cultivar and Temperature at Cutting Affect Quality of Fresh Slices

摘要

The response of four apple (Malus x domestica) cultivars (Gala, Granny Smith, Ambrosia, and Aurora Golden Gala (TM)) to fresh-cut processing at core temperatures of 1, 5, 13, and 20 degrees C was investigated. Fruit were cut after a 24-h preconditioning at one of the four temperatures and a commercial antibrowning formulation was applied as a 7% (w/v) dip before packaging the slices and storing them for 3 weeks at 5 degrees C. Fruit firmness generally decreased with increasing core temperature, except for Aurora Golden Gala (TM), which maintained similar firmness at all temperatures. Firmness varied among cultivars, but all except Granny Smith apples held at 13 and 20 degrees C, were at or above a minimum processing firmness standard of 14 lbf. Cut-edge browning of slices, in response to processing temperature, varied among the cultivars. In the extreme, 'Granny Smith' was the most responsive, showing the largest variance in Surface lightness across the temperature range. 'Ambrosia' was the least responsive to temperature, showing no significant difference in L-value despite the temperature at which it was processed. 'Gala' and Aurora Golden Gala (TM) were intermediate in response. The visual quality rating for 'Granny Smith' at 3 weeks was poor for slices from all processing temperatures. 'Ambrosia' slices maintained acceptable quality ratings over the full test temperature range. 'Gala' slices had lower quality ratings when processed at warmer temperatures, whereas Aurora Golden Gala (TM) showed increased quality ratings with warmer processing temperatures. It was concluded that 'Gala' were best processed at low core temperatures, 'Ambrosia' could be processed at all tested temperatures, and Aurora Golden Gala (TM) produced better quality slices when fruit were are room temperature (20 degrees C) before slicing.