Maturity recomendations

At the onset of WAPA, the driving force of our work evolved around the desire to increase consumption of our members' produce. We approached the common problem: how can we encourage consumers to consume more apples and pears within their diets? The approach WAPA took regarding supply was to ensure that the products our members place on the market correspond to that that the consumer wants, the correct combination of firmness, acidity and sweetness.

An industry focus on supply

One of the main problems identified in the apple and pear industries to date, is the need to better match supply and demand. In order to approach this task WAPA needed an in depth knowledge of what the consumer wants (or doesn't want) and what the supplier can offer the market.

WAPA outsourced this in depth review to HortResearch, a New Zealand-based research centre specialising in advances in the quality and range of horticultural crops. Several organoleptic criteria of apples and pears, that is to say the properties which consumers experience when eating an apple or pear, were identified. It was concluded that these must be met for a consumer to be satisfied. These criteria were:

• sugar content;
• acidity;
• texture and mealiness; and
• firmness.

Following the identification of these parameters, the WAPA membership decided they should have clear quantifiable parameters which would form the basis of recommended best practices to producers. In 2003, these best practices for producers to ensure the quality of their production were established as follows:

Apples

• Mealy apples should be excluded from the marketplace;
• mealiness should be assessed by tasting (instrumental measurements may be able to be implemented in the future);
• industries should particularly make a point of checking for mealiness in apples that have a firmness (pressure) that is 5 Kgf (11 lbf)* or lower (10 lbf for sour apples);
• at harvest, starch should have cleared from the core region and Soluble Sugar Content should have reached 11 %.

Pears

• Industries should exclude hard, unripe pears from the marketplace;
• fruit at the early stages of ripening (e.g. 5 Kgf or 11 lb using 7.9 mm diameter probe) are only slightly liked by consumers;
• fruit should be sufficiently chilled to ensure that they will ripen when released into the marketplace;
• fruit should be harvested after they have reached maturity in order to ensure they will develop a full flavour texture and juiciness upon ripening.

*as measured using an 11.1 mm diameter Magnus-Taylor/Effegi probe.

The best practices were transmitted to members who agreed to guide producers to adhere to them so that harvest management could result in a better quality of produce at outturn to match consumer demand.

A copy of the best practices is available for members to download here.