ISHS Acta Horticulturae 464: International Postharvest Science Conference Postharvest 96
HYDRAULIC SORTING OF WATERCORE APPLES |
| Authors: | R.P. Cavalieri, G.M. Hyde, P.R. MacQuarrie |
| Abstract:
The presence of watercore in apples occurs significantly about one out of every three years in Washington State. It is desirable to separate fruit that are affected from those that are not, since moderately to severely affected fruit cannot be successfully stored for an extended period. The lack of a practical method to separate fruit with watercore from those without leads to the untimely marketing of fruit that otherwise could have been placed into long term storage. This paper presents the results of our research on development of a high volume separation device, compatible with existing apple packing lines. The prototype device creates a region of controlled lower density fluid through which fruit passes and in which the fruit is separated. The prototype correctly separated 100% of fruit that were moderately or severely affected (specific gravities equal to or greater than 0.90) from those that were less affected, irrespective of fruit size. Fruit that were less than moderately affected (specific gravities between 0.90 and 0.88) were separated from those with slight or no watercore with 80–90% accuracy, depending on fruit size. The blind test used 245 ‘Red Delicious’ apples that were sorted under 5 conditions with 3 replications each (n = 3,675). | |
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