Co-Authors:
Mizrach, A., Institute of Agricultural Engineering, A.R.O., The Volcani Center, P.O.B. 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel
Galili, N., Agricultural Engineering Department, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel
Teitel, D.C., Division of Fruit and Vegetable Storage, A.R.O., The Volcani Center, P.O.B. 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel
Rosenhouse, G., Civil Engineering Department, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel
Abstract:
Autumn-grown (without internal breakdown) and winter-grown (with internal breakdown) melons were evaluated for firmness, dry weight (DW) and total soluble solids (TSS) content in sample fruit sectors from different depths within the fruit. Acoustical and quality parameters of the samples were tested, and the relationships between them analyzed. In the fruit of both seasons, the DW and TSS showed increasing gradients toward the center of the fruit, although winter-grown fruits had much higher values of the two parameters. The acoustical attenuation of transmitted pulse in ripe wintergrown melons, as well as the DW and TSS characteristics, increased drastically with the depth of the fruit sample. The dependence on depth (R = 0.842) indicates the potential for using the attenuation coefficient to predict internal fruit quality. © 1994.