Métodos não destrutivos na avaliação da maturação de mangas ‘Palmer’ e simulação de danos decorrentes do transporte.

Abstract

Most methods for determining fruit maturation are destructive, which limits applicability and reflects losses in mango crop production that is of great importance in fruit production and exportation in Brazil. In addition to the use of non-destructive harvesting techniques, the study of damage that may be caused as a result of transportation are factors that can minimize losses and ensure homogeneity in the quality of these fruits. Thus, the objective of the studies was to evaluate non-destructive techniques in determining parameters of maturation of 'Palmer' mangoes and the effect of vibration stress, after transport simulation, on the quality of stored fruits. In the first step, to determine quality attributes (firmness, total soluble solids, total titratable acidity) non-destructively during maturing 'Palmer' mangoes, visible and near infrared spectroscopy (VIS-NIR) techniques were applied and use of reflectance images. In the second step of the studies, a vibrating machine was developed and tested to simulate the road transport of fruits, with subsequent evaluation of the quality of 'Palmer' mangoes in storage after vibration efforts, through: mass loss, pulp firmness, index peel and pulp browning, total soluble solids content and total titratable acidity. The use of spectroscopy and digital imaging was effective in non-invasively determining quality attributes during maturation of 'Palmer' mangoes. The development of the vibratory machine made it possible to satisfactorily simulate vibration frequencies during fruit road transport, helping to identify changes in the quality of 'Palmer' mangoes due to vibrational stress.