Nondestructive tests for measuring the firmness of guava fruit stored and treated with methyl jasmonate and calcium chloride

Summary Ripening is one of the most important processes to occur in fruits and involves changes in colour, flavour and texture. An important goal in quality control of fruits is to substitute traditional sensory testing methods with reliable and quantitative methods. In this study, methyl jasmonate (MJ) (220 μL L−1) and calcium chloride (at 1%) were applied to guava fruits stored at 6 °C. The compression test (CT) and acoustic impact test were used to monitor the shelf life of guavas. The results obtained using both techniques showed that Young’s modulus diminishes as a function of time in all samples; however, the texture of samples treated for 20 days with MJ deteriorated unacceptably, a condition which did not occur in the samples treated with calcium chloride. The control samples had a shelf life of 20 days. In conclusion, it appears that the acoustic impact test is more appropriate than the CT and has the additional advantage of being a nondestructive technique.