Texture profiling of blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) during fruit development, ripening and storage

Blueberries are ‘soft fruit’, a name which underlies the impact that fruit texture plays in their marketability. Worldwide blueberry production has been increasing in the last years, and they are now the second most economically important soft fruit after strawberry. During pre- and postharvest ripening, fruit softening represents the most dramatic change, leading to important losses in quality during storage. To support the FEM breeding program toward the creation of new blueberry accessions with superior texture, we used a novel texture analyzer TAXTplus to improve the phenotyping resolution, a fundamental step for a more reliable and precise selection of the most suitable ideotypes. In this work change in the mechanical profile of the blueberry cultivar ‘Brigitta Blue’ was initially assessed during berry development, maturation and postharvest ripening, revealing important textural variations. In addition, this novel equipment was exploited to compare the fruit texture behavior at two specific stages, maturity and after postharvest cold storage, on a set of 49 different blueberry and hybrids cultivars and selections. A multivariate statistical approach, including principal component analysis, was employed to analyze the dataset related to the textural parameters, according to their performance. Finally a storage index, originally defined for apple fruit texture, was adopted to depict the different storage potential of a set of blueberry cultivars.

► Blueberry texture properties were dissected by the employment of six new texture parameters. ► Blueberry fruit development can be distinguished in three main categories based on texture profiles. ► There was a wide variation in texture performance at harvest, as well as after 2 months of cold storage. ► A storage index identified high postharvest potential in blueberry. ► The texture parameter gradient (Young's module) is a new promising index for a more comprehensive fruit texture characterization in blueberry.