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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #293940
Title: Characterization and nultivariate analysis of physical properties of processing peaches

Author
item LI, XUAN - University Of California
item ZHANG, ANG - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item ATUNGULU, GRIFFITH - University Of California
item McHugh, Tara
item DELWICHE, MICHAEL - University Of California
item LIN, SHUANG - University Of California
item Pan, Zhongli

Submitted to: Food and Bioprocess Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/16/2014
Publication Date: 2/7/2014
Publication URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11947-014-1269-y
Citation: Li, X., Zhang, A., Atungulu, G., McHugh, T.H., Delwiche, M., Lin, S., Pan, Z. 2014. Characterization and nultivariate analysis of physical properties of processing peaches. Food and Bioprocess Technology. 7(6):1756-1766. DOI: 10.1007/s11947-014-1269-y.

Interpretive Summary: The impact of physical properties of peaches on processing efficiency and product quality is important. Physical properties of three popular cultivars of clingstone peaches were characterized and intercorrelation among the properties within the cultivars were studied using multivariate analysis. Results of multivariate analysis showed that the studied peach cultivars had significantly different (p<0.05) geometric characteristics, especially their shapes and sizes. The peaches could be classified based on the cheek diameter (Dc) into three different size categories, including small (Dc less than 60 mm), medium (Dc between 60 mm and 70 mm) and large (Dc higher than 70 mm) sized peaches. The peach flesh firmness significantly (p<0.05) decreased with the increase of peach size while the pit dimensions were independent of peach size. There were no apparent distinctions in color characteristics, bulk density, and sugar content among the three cultivars. The findings of this study should benefit peach processors in achieving precise discrimination of fruits and facilitate the design of new processing equipment.

Technical Abstract: Characterization of physical properties of fruits represents the first vital step to ensure optimal performance of fruit processing operations and is also a prerequisite in the development of new processing equipment. In this study, physical properties of engineering significance to processing of three popular cultivars of clingstone peaches were evaluated, such as dimensional parameters, mass, dimensional ratios, aspect ratio, elongation index, sphericity, bulk density, texture, color, and flavor. Also, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), canonical variate analysis (CVA) and principal component analysis (PCA), were applied to qualitatively and quantitatively discriminate peaches of different cultivars based on these physical properties. Results of multivariate analysis showed that the studied peach cultivars had significantly different (p<0.05) geometric characteristics, especially their shapes and sizes. The peaches could be classified based on the cheek diameter (Dc) into three different size categories, including small (Dc less than 60 mm), medium (Dc between 60 mm and 70 mm) and large (Dc higher than 70 mm) sized peaches. The peach flesh firmness significantly (p<0.05) decreased with the increase of peach size while the pit dimensions were independent of peach size. There were no apparent distinctions in color characteristics, bulk density, and sugar content among the three cultivars. The findings could benefit peach processors in achieving precise discrimination of fruits which helps improve the processing efficiency and quality of processed products.