Abstract
We clarified the firmness property and the load effect on the quality deterioration of strawberries to assist in the development of handling and packaging methods that prevent damage to the fruit. With samples of “Tochiotome” strawberries harvested from December 2005 to May 2006, we measured the firmness of various parts of the fruit classified according to color, and found that the apex and equatorial part of 80% colored or full colored fruit had almost equivalent firmness. Regarding the relation between the load and quality deterioration, we found that a load could cause color change even when the load-induced deformation at the apex was only 0.2mm. We also found that the color of the fruit tended to change significantly when the applied load became larger. It was also verified that even a temporary load could affect the subsequent quality change of the fruit.
