INFLUENCE OF YEAR,CULTIVAR AND FRUIT MATURITY ON QUALITY OF PEACH PUREE1

A 3-year study was conducted to evaluate the effect of year, cultivar and fruit maturity on the quality of peach puree and to determine the relative importance (RI) of these factors on the quality components hue angle (color), pH, acidity, soluble solids (SS) and SS/acid ratio. The results indicated that year, cultivar and fruit maturity had a strong effect and that they are very important in determining the quality of peach puree by affecting the different quality components. In general, fruit maturity had stronger RI than year and cultivar on the quality parameters studied. The data obtained for different maturities and cultivars fit a linear regression that accounted for 95% of the variability for all quality parameters measured. pH and SS/acid ratio increased while acidity and hue angle decreased and SS showed small or no increase as the fruit reached more advance stages of maturity.