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(Reference retrieved automatically from SciELO through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Variability of fig firmness indexes using cylindrical probe and parallel plates compression

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Author(s):
Franciane Colares Souza [1] ; Antonio Carlos de Oliveira Ferraz [2]
Total Authors: 2
Affiliation:
[1] UNICAMP. Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola
[2] UNICAMP. Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola
Total Affiliations: 2
Document type: Journal article
Source: Revista Brasileira de Fruticultura; v. 31, n. 1, p. 257-261, 2009-03-00.
Abstract

'Roxo de Valinhos' fig is a perishable handling sensitive product. The low mechanical resistance of the mature fig fruit demands special care during harvesting, packing, transportation and commercialization. Firmness is an important textural attribute for vegetables, expressing the tension-strain measure useful to evaluating harvesting point and temporal quality. However, the non existence of a standard for measuring firmness may lead to inadequate decisions in choosing the proper index. In this work, four firmness indexes extracted from force-deformation curves as result of mechanical penetration tests with cylindrical probe and compression tests between flat and parallel plates were compared aiming to identify the index with least variability to be used in figs. Results indicated that previous force-deformation curves inspection is important to establishing firmness evaluation intervals. Among the considered firmness indexes, the deformation energy up to 10% deformation, using flat plate compression is the best index to evaluate fig firmness since it showed the lowest coefficient of variation. (AU)