RELATIONSHIP OF IMPACT TRANSMISSION WAVE TO APPLE TEXTURE DURING RIPENING

Impact transmission wave measurement technique was applied for nondest ructive ripeness evaluation of Golden apples. Three types of texture p roperties referred to as firmness parameters, viscoelastic parameters and rupture parameter were measured fi om destructive penetration test s to represent apple ripeness. Curve-fitted model functions of transmi ssion velocity and time span were established to evaluate the texture properties with the correlation coefficients between 0.791 and 0.957. The transmission wave parameters were used to discriminate six groups of the apples for their ripeness. A discrimination accuracy of 86.7% w as obtained. It was concluded that the transmission wave may be used a s a nondestructive means for reliable estimation and discrimination of apple ripeness.