• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.131-138
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• 2016

This study was conducted to investigate the change in the quality of early season Fuji apples that were subjected to eight different storage conditions using the developed controlled atmosphere (CA) storage system. Early season Fuji apples grown at Mungyeong, in the South Korea, were harvested in September 2014 for storage studies. Flesh firmness, titratable acidity, total soluble solid content, weight loss, and internal browning disorder were used as quality indicators for the stored apples. Flesh firmness and weight loss were better than that of the control after 70 days of storage. However, there was no significant difference in the titratable acidity or total soluble solid content among the apple samples from eight chambers after storage. The internal browning disorder of apple samples in CA chambers occurred when exposed to 1% $CO_2+2%$ $O_2$ and 1% $CO_2+0.5%$ $O_2$, resulting in a higher incidence rate of 2 and 8% after 70 days of storage than that in the control. In addition, the CA storage conditions at 3, 4 and 5% $CO_2+2%$ $O_2$ increased the rate of internal browning disorder by 26%. Therefore, CA storage can be used to maintain the quality of the apple if the optimal gas concentrations in the CA are applied to the storage strategy.