Mechanical damage during harvest and loading affect orange postharvest quality

Brazil is the world’s largest orange producer; however, part of this production is lost during postharvest. This loss can be minimized by controlling incidence of physical damage throughout the harvest and loading operations. Impacts can negatively modify quantitative and qualitative fruits aspects. The main goal of this study was to measure the impact magnitude in two types of harvest (manual and detachment) and during all steps from picking into bags until loading for transport to the processing industry and additionally evaluating, in laboratory, the physico-chemical quality of the fruit subjected to various impacts, similar to those found in the field. In order to evaluate the impact magnitude, an instrumented sphere was used (760 mm, Techmark, Inc, USA). The following physico-chemical parameters were evaluated during 6-days of storage: weight loss, soluble solids contents, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid content, pH, firmness and peel color. The greatest impacts were observed during harvest, during the detachment practice, and when loading and unloading from bulk storage, with average acceleration values between 249.5 and 531.52G. The impact incidence in oranges were responsible for reducing the soluble solids, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid and weight by to 5.5%; 8.7%; 4.6% and 0.5%, respectively, compared to the control. Impacts during harvest and the various pre-industry manipulation steps must be controlled as they interfere in postharvest quality and physiology of ‘Valência’ oranges. O Brasil é o maior produtor mundial de laranjas; contudo, parte desta produção é perdida ao longo da pós-colheita. Essas perdas podem ser minimizadas controlando-se a incidência de danos físicos nas operações de colheita e carregamento. Os impactos podem alterar negativamente aspectos qualitativos e quantitativos da produção. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi mensurar a magnitude dos impactos em dois tipos de colheita (manual e derriça) e durante as etapas desde a coleta dos frutos nas sacolas até o carregamento de laranjas para indústria e, adicionalmente, avaliar em laboratório a qualidade físico-química de frutos submetidos a magnitude de impactos similares aos encontrados em campo. Para a avaliação da magnitude dos impactos, foi utilizada a esfera instrumentada (760 mm, Techmark, Inc, USA). Durante armazenamento por seis dias, as avaliações físico-químicas foram: perda de massa fresca, teores de sólidos solúveis, acidez titulável, teor de ácido ascórbico, pH, fi