Evaluation of the bruising susceptibility of apple in transport conditions

Vahid Rostampour, Asad Modares Motlagh

Abstract: Transporting vibration is a major cause of bruising damage in apples. The most previous studies about the bruising susceptibility of apple were conducted using the pendulum device and with a single impact. So their results for transport conditions are not accurate, because the effect of tissue fatigue (caused by cyclic loading) and apple mass have not been considered. In this study, using a vibration simulation of transportation, the effect of vibration parameters (frequency and acceleration) and fruit properties (mass, curvature radius and acoustical stiffness) on bruising susceptibility of Golden Delicious apple were investigated. The results showed that, increasing the vibration acceleration increases the bruising volume. Also increasing the vibration frequency decreased the bruising, but in higher frequencies (f ≥ 13 Hz), if the acceleration value is greater than 0.5 g, the fatigue phenomenon can reverse this trend and increasing the frequency will increase the bruising volume. Increasing the apple mass, at the acceleration of 0.5 g or more (a ≥ 0.5 g), increased the bruising volume and at accelerations of less than 0.5 g, reduced the bruising volume. Also results indicated that the apples with high acoustic stiffness and low curvature radius were more vulnerable. In conclusion, the results showed that to improve the handling of apple, arrangement of fruit in the box must be carried out carefully and we hope that findings of this research will help to achieve this goal.

Keywords: apple; bruising; transport conditions; vibration

Date published: 2018-11-02