Quality evaluation of blueberry from lower vistula region

English. Blueberry fruits have been a valuable subject in h uman nutrition for many decades. They are known all over the world, not only because of the taste, but also because of their numerous health and nutri tional values. They show properties that are of great importance i n the prevention of civilization diseases. They are ideal for direct consumption, as well as for preserves and fr ozen foods. The purpose of the work was to determin e the quality of blueberry fruit after harvest and after storage. Average size, fruit weight, time influence on the sugar content in fruit and changes in firmness of berries were determined. The research concerned the cultiv ars: “Aurora”, “Bluecrop”, “Brigitta”, “Chandler”, “Darr ow”, “Duke”, “Eliot” and “Liberty”. The obtained re sults allow to conclude that the fruits of the largest ma ss and size are present in the Darrow variant and t he lowest in the Liberty cultivar. “Chandler” has the highest ha rdness, thanks to which the fruits are less suscept ible to damage. The smallest hardness was for “Duke”. After storage, the firmness of all cultivars increased w ith the exception of the “Darrow” cultivar, this was the re sult of transpiration. The “Liberty” cultivar after 21 days from harvest had the highest hardness, and the “Brigitta ” cultivar had the smallest. The “Darrow” cultivar is the only one to reduce hardness after storage, which indicat es less resistance to storage. The following conclu sions were made in the work: lowering the storage temperature to 3 ºC in a statistically significant way slows th e biological processes leading to maturation and overgrowth of b ilberry fruits; along with the increase in the stor age period, the weight and size of the fruit of all the cultiva rs studied decrease, and the characteristic creases appear on the fruit; as time goes on, the sugar content of the te sted cultivars increases as a result of fruit ripen ing.

English. blueberry, cultivars, quality

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356-361