Postharvest Quality and Acceptance of LB8-9 Mandarin as a New Fresh Fruit Cultivar

• Published in: HortTechnology (Alexandria, Va.) Va.), 2007-01, Vol.17 (1), p.72-77
• Main Authors: Dou, Huating, Gmitter, Fred G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1063-0198; 1943-7714
• DOI: 10.21273/horttech.17.1.72

A new mandarin cultivar currently designated as selection LB8-9 [‘Clementine’ mandarin ( Citrus reticulata ) × ‘Minneola’ tangelo, Duncan grapefruit ( Citrus paradisi ) × Dancy tangerine ( C. reticulata )], soon to be released by the University of Florida, Citrus Research and Education Center, Lake Alfred, has been evaluated for postharvest fruit quality and consumer acceptance. Comparisons were made with ‘Sunburst’ and ‘Minneola’ mandarins, which overlap the early and late LB8-9 maturity season, respectively. LB8-9 and ‘Sunburst’ fruit stored 2 weeks at 70 °F developed similar decay percentages (35% to 37%), while ‘Minneola’ showed only 16% decay. Postharvest pitting incidence was zero in LB8-9 and ‘Minneola’ and 3% in ‘Sunburst’ stored at 70 °F and 92% to 96% relative humidity (RH). At the same storage conditions, LB8-9 and ‘Sunburst’ developed better fruit peel color (hue = 60) in comparison with the ‘Minneola’ (hue = 65) mandarin. No differences were found in fruit external peel color (hue angle), chilling injury, or decay among three cultivars stored at 40 °F after 6 weeks. However, juice color was the best in ‘Sunburst’ as indicated by the highest color numbers (44), followed by LB8-9 (40) and ‘Minneola’ (38). Wax-formulation studies indicated that carnauba wax was the best formulation for coating LB8-9 because of low decay incidence, weight loss, and good color. No difference was found in fruit taste panels at day 6 after packing, while a better score of acceptance in the fruit taste panel was recorded for LB8-9 than ‘Minneola’ after 50 d of storage at 40 °F and 92% to 96% RH. LB8-9 fruit had a higher soluble solids concentration [SSC (14.0)] and acid (1.12) than ‘Minneola’ or ‘Sunburst’ mandarins, both having a SSC and acid lower than 11.5 and 0.86, respectively. Sucrose concentration was noticeably higher in the new cultivar (7.14 g/100 mL) than in ‘Minneola’ (5.27 g/100 mL) or ‘Sunburst’ (6.10 g/100 mL). Vitamin C concentration was 42.43 mg/100 mL for the new cultivar, which was considerably higher than ‘Minneola’ (23.27 mg/100 mL) or ‘Sunburst’ (26.25 mg/100 mL). Overall, LB8-9 has good potential as a new fresh fruit for the consumer, and no serious problems were noted with typical postharvest handling.