Effect of Sustainable Preharvest and Postharvest Techniques on Quality and Storability of High-Acidity ‘Reinette du Canada’ Apple

Abstract

Consumers are more disposed towards paying price premiums for sustainable food products. This fact is especially important for products with a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) label, such as the high-acidity apple cultivar ‘Reinette du Canada’. However, ‘Reinette du Canada’ apple fruit is affected by two of the main post-harvest disorders in apple cultivars, bitter pit and senescent breakdown. As a means to achieve sustainable production of this high-quality apple cultivar, the effect of a sustainable preharvest technique, summer pruning, in combination with a zero-residue postharvest treatment allowed in organic farming on calcium-related disorders and quality in global terms in this PDO-labelled apple cultivar was assessed during storage. The combination of the two sustainable practices was an effective tool in diminishing senescent breakdown from 43% to 17% and to decrease bitter pit incidence by up to 21% (from 36% to 15%) throughout storage, especially in fruit with high susceptibility to this disorder during storage. Moreover, the overall acceptability was kept high (values of more than 3 on a 5-point scale) when applying this environment-friendly sustainable horticulture practice, which will not only reduce the synthetic pesticide input in the apple agroecosystem, but also contribute to producing fruit with zero residues.