Fruit Firmness of Pickling Cucumber Cultivars

Abstract

<jats:p>Fruit firmness is one of the most important quality aspects in the production of pickling cucumbers (<jats:italic>Cucumis sativus</jats:italic>) for industry. This study compared the fruit firmness of different cultivars and evaluated the usability of different firmness variables. Firmness of fruit of five to six cultivars from a cultivar experiment was measured penetrometrically over 3 years. The maximum load needed to penetrate the skin, distance at maximum load, load at the end of the measurement, and the mean work during the whole measurement were recorded. Different variables gave a versatile impression of the fruit texture. Although there were some differences in the measured values each year, the ranking of the cultivars was similar each year. Cultivars Celine and Servus had the firmest skin and overall texture. `Aubade' and `Carine' had lower skin firmness but the inner part of the fruit of `Aubade' was very firm. `Etude' was similar to `Carine'. `B2590', measured in only 2 years, had lowest firmness both in skin and flesh. The results show that penetrometric measurement of fruit firmness is a suitable method for analyzing the texture of cucumbers intended for pickling.</jats:p>

Changes in amino acid contents, texture and microstructure of bamboo shoots during pickling process

“…Several studies have been conducted on the changes in nutrient components in pickled vegetables (Peng & Geisman, 1976;Javier et al, 2004;Montano et al, 2004). Meanwhile, several authors have studied the changes of the textural properties of pickled vegetables (Suojala-Ahlfors, 2005;Yoo et al, 2006;Cho & Buescher, 2012) and found that the texture of the salted vegetables softened during the pickling process. A large number of studies have suggested that the texture degradation of processed fruits and vegetables was mainly ascribed to the solubilisation and nonenzymatic depolymerisation of the cell wall pectin (Sila et al, 2006;De Roeck et al, 2008).…”

Texture of Sliced Cucumbers Measured by Subjective Human‐Bite and Objective Instrumental Tests

“…The quality of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fruits is evaluated primarily on the basis of freshness (Sakata et al 2008). Texture is known to be a major factor affecting cucumber quality (Breene et al 1972;Thompson et al 1982;Horie et al 2004;Suojala-Ahlfors 2005;Yoshioka et al 2009Yoshioka et al , 2010. Mechanical properties on relatively homogeneous parenchyma have been investigated to describe texture of plant materials, and fracture tests with various breaking methods (tensile, compression, bending, wedging and cutting) have been commonly conducted (Vincent 1994).…”

“…Mechanical properties on relatively homogeneous parenchyma have been investigated to describe texture of plant materials, and fracture tests with various breaking methods (tensile, compression, bending, wedging and cutting) have been commonly conducted (Vincent 1994). The puncture test of mesocarp (flesh) and/or endocarp (placenta in the seed cavity) has been adopted by many researchers to evaluate the texture of cucumbers (Breene et al 1974;Bourne 1982;Thompson et al 1982Thompson et al , 1992McFeeters and Lovdal 1987;Horie et al 2004;Sakurai et al 2005;Suojala-Ahlfors 2005;Sakata et al 2008). Another method to measure the texture of cucumbers was performed using a wedge-shaped probe to mimic human mastication (Dan et al 2003a;Kohyama et al 2003).…”

Softening of Processed Plant Virus Infected Cucumis sativus L. Fruits

“…The almost symptom-free fruits of CGMMV-infected cucumber plants did not reveal such significant deviations from the control, neither in fruit tissue structure nor in texture values. Differences in texture values between individual cultivars such as 'Liszt' and 'Platina' exist naturally, as studies have shown so far [36,37]. Pasteurization and long storage could amplify these differences and are thus clearly measurable even in the fresh or pasteurized state.…”