Identification of Quality Characteristics of Autochthonous Karasüt Apple during Cold Storage

Abstract

The main objective of the research was to assess weight loss, respiration rate, firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity and vitamin C content of the autochthonous Karasüt apple throughout cold storage. The ‘Granny Smith’ cultivar was used as positive control. The fruit was kept at a temperature of 0.0±0.5°C and relative humidity of 90±5%. Quality losses were observed in the apples during cold storage. The weight loss of Karasüt apple (6.70%) was higher than that of Granny Smith (2.20%) at the end of cold storage. A lower respiration rate was measured in the Karasüt apple (1.23 nmol CO2 kg-1 s-1), compared to the positive control (1.53 nmol CO2 kg-1 s-1) at harvest. On the contrary, the respiration rate was higher on days 30 and 60. The fruit firmness of Granny Smith (27.14 N) was higher than that of Karasüt (22.47 N) at the end of cold storage. During the cold storage, a higher SSC was obtained from Karasüt apple compared to the positive control. However, titratable acidity was lower in Karasüt apple. In the first two measurements of cold storage, the vitamin C of Karasüt apple was higher than that of the positive control. As a result, it was revealed that Karasüt apple had faster quality losses during cold storage than Granny Smith apple cultivar.