Effect of Two Different Cooling Systems on Quality of Cold Stored Peaches

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to store cold-storage sensitive peaches cv. Glohaven in two different cooling systems and determine the quality parameter changes that occur during storage. One of this storage had evaporative cooling called as VRI and the other had chiller cooling system called as NKU. Ambient temperature was set to +1 degrees C and relative humidity set to 90%. Weight loss, fruit firmness, soluble solid, titratable acidity, pH, respiration rate, skin colour and taste were investigated on samples taken from 3 different levels (lower, mid and upper levels) in storage rooms. There were no significant differences between the levels, depending on the quality criteria examined. The differences in quality parameter according to storage time and levels can be attributed to the fact that the peach fruit is a climacteric fruit and the samples have different maturity grades. Weight losses in the fruits inside the NKU cold storage were relatively less than VRI cold storage. Temperature and humidity fluctuations at low levels within the cold store were reflected in some of the quality characteristics examined, but some criteria did not not affect at all. The cold store affected on taste changes as more positive in NKU cold store.