ANALYSIS OF VARIATION AND MULTIVARIATE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG ANALYTICALAND SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS IN WHOLE APPLE EVALUATION

Sources of variation affecting assessment of whole apple fruit quality were identified and multivariate relationships between analytical and sensory characteristics examined. Fourteen analytical measurements (p H, soluble solids (SS), titratable acidity (TA), flesh L, flesh b, fle sh a, flesh hue angle, weight, internal ethylene, skin L, skin a, skin b, starch skin hue-angle) and six sensory characteristics (juiciness, crispness, firmness, fruit flavour, sweetness and sourness) were eval uated on samples from the same apple quarters. Variation in fruit qual ity among apples of three red categories (15-25%, 50-60%, 85-95%) and within apples due to side-to-side (blush versus non-blush) and top-to- bottom were documented. Highly coloured 'McIntosh' apples (85-95% red) were significantly heavier, sweeter, and had a higher pH than those w ith less colour development. The non-blush sides of the apples were si gnificantly more crisp and less sweet than the blush sides. Highly col oured 'Jonagold' apples (85-95%) were significantly sweeter and fruiti er. The bottom sections of both the 'McIntosh' and 'Jonagold' apples h ad significantly lower pH than the top. The bottom sections of 'McInto sh' apples were sweeter; whereas the bottom sections of 'Jonagold' wer e less crisp and more fruity. For 'McIntosh' and 'Jonagold' cultivars, canonical correlation analyses elucidated three and two underlying di mensions, respectively, that characterised the relationships among the analytical and sensory variables. For both cultivars, discriminant an alysis was successful in differentiating the red classifications using the analytical and sensory variables.