Quality evaluation of blueberry from lower vistula region

Abstract

Blueberry fruits have been a valuable subject in human nutrition for many decades. They are known all over the world, not only because of the taste, but also because of their numerous health and nutritional values. They show properties that are of great importance in the prevention of civilization diseases. They are ideal for direct consumption, as well as for preserves and frozen foods. The purpose of the work was to determine the quality of blueberry fruit after harvest and after storage. Average size, fruit weight, time influence on the sugar content in fruit and changes in firmness of berries were determined. The research concerned the cultivars: “Aurora”, “Bluecrop”, “Brigitta”, “Chandler”, “Darrow”, “Duke”, “Eliot” and “Liberty”. The obtained results allow to conclude that the fruits of the largest mass and size are present in the Darrow variant and the lowest in the Liberty cultivar. “Chandler” has the highest hardness, thanks to which the fruits are less susceptible to damage. The smallest hardness was for “Duke”. After storage, the firmness of all cultivars increased with the exception of the “Darrow” cultivar, this was the result of transpiration. The “Liberty” cultivar after 21 days from harvest had the highest hardness, and the “Brigitta” cultivar had the smallest. The “Darrow” cultivar is the only one to reduce hardness after storage, which indicates less resistance to storage. The following conclusions were made in the work: lowering the storage temperature to 3 ºC in a statistically significant way slows the biological processes leading to maturation and overgrowth of bilberry fruits; along with the increase in the storage period, the weight and size of the fruit of all the cultivars studied decrease, and the characteristic creases appear on the fruit; as time goes on, the sugar content of the tested cultivars increases as a result of fruit ripening.