Mealiness assessment in apples and peaches using MRI techniques

Mealiness (woolliness in peaches) is a negative attribute of sensory textur e that combines the sensation of a desegregated tissue with the sensation o f lack of juiciness. In this study, 24 apples cv. Top Red and 8 peaches cv. Maycrest, submitted to 3 and 2 different storage conditions respectively h ave been tested by mechanical and MRI techniques to assess mealiness. With this study, the results obtained on apples in a previous work have been val idated using mathematical features from the histograms of the T2 maps: more skewed and the presence of a tail in mealy apples, similar to internal bre akdown. In peaches, MRI techniques can also be used to identify woolly frui ts. Not all the changes found in the histograms of woolly peaches are simil ar from those observed in mealy apples pointing to a different underlying p hysiological change in both disorders. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All r ights reserved.