Study of the quality of peaches, nectarines and apricots based on morphological characteristics

Fresh fruits (FFs) are nutritionally valuable and are a major part of consumers' daily diets. The requirements towards quality of FFs have been increasing in recent years, and this is provoked by the need to add FFs with certain characteristic of the respective type/variety, properties and nutritional value in the diet. The purpose of this study is to present the morphological characteristics and specific results of the experimental study, linking them with the requirements reflected in the regulatory documents and determining quality of FFs. The object of this study is stone FFs from three harvests 2021, 2022 and 2023: peaches (Prunus persica) - Red Haven variety, O'Henry variety; nectarines (Prunus persica var. Nucipersica) - Sun grand variety, Golden Grand variety; apricots (Prunus armeniaca) - Hungarian variety, Delmas variety, Roxana variety and Silistra compotna variety. The morphological characteristics - shape, weight and dimensions (length, height and width) of the fruits, stones and petioles separated from them are determined according to an established methodology. The results obtained from the measurements were averaged and the diameter of the largest cross-section was calculated. The result is compared with the requirements reflected in Ordinance 16, 2010 and Regulation 543/2011, and quality class of FFs is determined. The following conclusions are drawn on the basis of FFs morphological characteristics: 1. the weight, sizes of fruits, stones and petioles of each variety are determined.; 2. the FFs quality was determined: peaches variety Redhaven and variety O'Henry are quality class Extra; nectarines variety Sungrand and variety Goldengrand are quality class Extra; the apricots variety Hungarian, variety Roxana, variety Delmast and variety Silistra Compotna are quality class Extra. The focus of future work may be directed at: calculation of the number of wastes from the certain fruit variety that will be generated after their processing.; introduce the possibility to manage and use the separated wastes obtained after processing FFs.