2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Chile’s sweet cherry production has grown by ~363% over the last two decades, and is currently mostly being exported to China. Shipping from Chile to China results in travel and commercialization periods up to 50 days. Among the top three cherry cultivars produced in Chile, ‘Regina’ (a German bred variety) is highly planted because it is a late season variety and it is resistant to cracking. However, a herbaceous/bitter taste has been reported to appear in ‘Regina’, both at harvest and during/after storage, affecting its fruit quality and commercialization. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the development of the odd-flavor and to understand the associated sensory and quality aspects during fruit ripening and storage.‘Regina’ sweet cherries were harvested from an orchard with prior year high incidence of bitter taste. Six phenological stages were studied: pre-véraison, véraison, bright red, red (commercial harvest), dark red and black color (senescence). At commercial harvest, additional cherries from three different orchards from southern Chile were harvested and stored for 30 and 45 days at 0 °C, plus 3 days at 15 °C. Eighty sweet cherries were assessed for firmness, texture, soluble solid concentration, titratable acidity, color, ethylene production and respiration rate at each phenological stage and each storage date. Stem browning, and fruit internal browning and orange peel physiological disorders were also evaluated. Sensory evaluation was carried out with another eighty fruits to verify presence/absence of the odd-flavor taste. Cherries were halved, one half tasted by two panelists, and the other half liquid frozen and stored at -80 °C for further analysis. The herbaceous flavor was only present at the bright red and commercial harvest stages; no odd-flavor was found at the senescent stage. During storage, two out of three orchards presented herbaceous flavor at harvest and after 30 and 45 days of storage. Incidence was ~8-6% at harvest and remained constant throughout storage. Unlike the herbaceous flavor, bitter taste appeared only after 30 and 45 days of storage at 0 °C plus 3 days at 15 °C, and it showed independently from the herbaceous flavor. Interestingly, when fruit had internal browning incidence, neither herbaceous nor bitter flavor were present in the fruit. These preliminary results showed that the herbaceous flavor is a critical problem for ‘Regina’ storage. Quality and physiological relationships with the herbaceous flavor will be discussed.