Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The goal of this research was to investigate changes in the physiological properties including firmness, stiffness, weight, background colour, ethylene production and respiration of ‘Cripps Pink’ apple stored under different temperature and atmosphere conditions,. This research also seeks to establish mathematical models for the prediction of changes in firmness and stiffness of the apple during normal atmosphere (NA) storage. Experiments were conducted to determine the quality changes in ‘Cripps Pink’ apple under three sets of storage conditions. The first set of storage conditions consisted of NA storage at 0oC, 2.5oC, 5oC, 10oC, 20oC and 30oC. In the second set of conditions the apples were placed in NA cold storage at 0oC for 61 days, followed by NA storage at the aforementioned six temperatures. The third set of conditions consisted of controlled atmosphere (CA) (2 kPa O2 : 1 kPa CO2) at 0oC storage for 102 days followed by NA storage at the six temperatures mentioned previously. The firmness, stiffness, weight loss, skin colour, ethylene and carbon dioxide production of the apples were monitored at specific time intervals during storage. Firmness was measured using a HortPlus Quick Measure Penetrometer (HortPlus Ltd, Hawke Bat, New Zealand); stiffness was measured using a commercial acoustic firmness sensor-AFS (AWETA, Nootdorp, The Netherlands). Experimental data analysis was performed using the GraphPad Prism 4.03, 2005 software package. The Least-Squares method and iterative non-linear regression were used to model and simulate changes in firmness and stiffness in GraphPad Prism 4.03, 2005 and DataFit 8.1, 2005 softwares. The experimental results indicated that the firmness and stiffness of ‘Cripps Pink’ apple stored in NA decreased with increases in temperature and time. Under NA, the softening pattern was tri-phasic for apples stored at 0oC, 2.5oC and 5oC for firmness, and at 0oC and 2.5oC for stiffness. However, there were only two softening phases for apples stored at higher temperatures. NA at 0oC, 2.5oC and 5oC improved skin background colour and extended the storage ability of apples compared to higher temperatures. CA during the first stage of storage better maintained the firmness and stiffness of the apples. However, it reduced subsequent ethylene and carbon dioxide (CO2) production after removal from storage. Steep increases in ethylene and CO2 production coincided with rapid softening in the fruit flesh and yellowing of the skin background colour, under NA conditions. The exponential decay model was the best model for predicting changes in the firmness, stiffness and keeping quality of the apples. The exponential decay model satisfied the biochemical theory of softening in the apple, and had the highest fitness to the experimental data collected over the wide range of temperatures. The softening rate increased exponentially with storage temperature complying with the Arrhenius equation. Therefore a combination of the exponential decay model with the Arrhenius equation was found to best characterise the softening process and to predict changes in the firmness and stiffness of apples stored at different temperatures in NA conditions.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The goal of this research was to investigate changes in the physiological properties including firmness, stiffness, weight, background colour, ethylene production and respiration of ‘Cripps Pink’ apple stored under different temperature and atmosphere conditions,. This research also seeks to establish mathematical models for the prediction of changes in firmness and stiffness of the apple during normal atmosphere (NA) storage. Experiments were conducted to determine the quality changes in ‘Cripps Pink’ apple under three sets of storage conditions. The first set of storage conditions consisted of NA storage at 0oC, 2.5oC, 5oC, 10oC, 20oC and 30oC. In the second set of conditions the apples were placed in NA cold storage at 0oC for 61 days, followed by NA storage at the aforementioned six temperatures. The third set of conditions consisted of controlled atmosphere (CA) (2 kPa O2 : 1 kPa CO2) at 0oC storage for 102 days followed by NA storage at the six temperatures mentioned previously. The firmness, stiffness, weight loss, skin colour, ethylene and carbon dioxide production of the apples were monitored at specific time intervals during storage. Firmness was measured using a HortPlus Quick Measure Penetrometer (HortPlus Ltd, Hawke Bat, New Zealand); stiffness was measured using a commercial acoustic firmness sensor-AFS (AWETA, Nootdorp, The Netherlands). Experimental data analysis was performed using the GraphPad Prism 4.03, 2005 software package. The Least-Squares method and iterative non-linear regression were used to model and simulate changes in firmness and stiffness in GraphPad Prism 4.03, 2005 and DataFit 8.1, 2005 softwares. The experimental results indicated that the firmness and stiffness of ‘Cripps Pink’ apple stored in NA decreased with increases in temperature and time. Under NA, the softening pattern was tri-phasic for apples stored at 0oC, 2.5oC and 5oC for firmness, and at 0oC and 2.5oC for stiffness. However, there were only two softening phases for apples stored at higher temperatures. NA at 0oC, 2.5oC and 5oC improved skin background colour and extended the storage ability of apples compared to higher temperatures. CA during the first stage of storage better maintained the firmness and stiffness of the apples. However, it reduced subsequent ethylene and carbon dioxide (CO2) production after removal from storage. Steep increases in ethylene and CO2 production coincided with rapid softening in the fruit flesh and yellowing of the skin background colour, under NA conditions. The exponential decay model was the best model for predicting changes in the firmness, stiffness and keeping quality of the apples. The exponential decay model satisfied the biochemical theory of softening in the apple, and had the highest fitness to the experimental data collected over the wide range of temperatures. The softening rate increased exponentially with storage temperature complying with the Arrhenius equation. Therefore a combination of the exponential decay model with the Arrhenius equation was found to best characterise the softening process and to predict changes in the firmness and stiffness of apples stored at different temperatures in NA conditions.