The effects of storage conditions on the keeping quality of 'Gala' apples

Experiments were conducted over three years to determine the optimum storage conditions for 'Gala' apples. Fruit was stored in a range of carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations at 1.5 and 3.5 degrees C and in air at 0 and 1.5 degrees C. Firmness during storage was retained most effectively at high carbon dioxide concentrations and low oxygen concentrations. During a subsequent 7 d simulated marketing period in air at 20 degrees C, softening was greater in samples which had been stored in oxygen concentrations above 1% than in samples from 1% oxygen. The content of flavour volatiles declined rapidly after storage for ten weeks, but the scores for acceptability given by a sensory panel declined only slowly during storage and were positively correlated with firmness. Storage in air at 0 degrees C was limited to ten weeks, after which fruit was unacceptably soft. Firmness was maintained adequately at 1.5 degrees C in <1% CO2 + 1% O-2 and 5% CO2 + 1% O-2, but the development of scald and low-temperature breakdown limited the storage life of the variety to 21 and 27 weeks, respectively. The incidence of disorders was not related to the starch-iodine staining pattern at harvest.