Reflectance spectroscopy as a useful tool for monitoring apricot fruit quality and ripening

Fruit visual appearance is one of the first quality determinants, and encouraging consumers to buy them. Often the fruit appearance, especially color, is the most critical factor in the initial sale. In the past, the evaluation of apricot color has been subjective and based on visual ratings. The present paper illustrates the use of colorimetric tristimulus system CIELAB and CIELCH to objectively quantify and characterize fruit color and quality. To this aim, fruits of two new apricot cultivars with extra-early maturation (Rares and Valeria) have been analyzed for color, but also for pigments content, acidity and soluble solids. The lightness value (L*) of apricot cultivars studied do not varied significantly during the fruit maturation. The a* and b* values significantly increased and the h° value progressively decreased with fruit ripening, having similar values for both cultivars. Among the chromatic CIELAB parameters studied the* and h° represent feasible indicators, both for quantifying fruit color and for distinguishing different maturity stages of the apricot fruit. One can conclude that the determination of chromatic attributes, as well as the plot of these, makes it possible to identify the different maturation phases, fact that should be of interest to breeders and growers in order to quantify the ripening and quality of fruit.