Comparison of Devices for Measuring Cherry Fruit Firmness
The performance of three relatively new nondestructive cherry firmness devices and a penetrometer were evaluated and compared with the firmness testing performance of an Instron Universal Testing Machine. The inherent variability of the nondestructive devices was estimated by repeated measurement of a uniform, symmetrical, and resilient rubber ball. Analysis of residuals from correlations between each device and the Instron from firmness testing on common samples of sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) confirmed the relative variability of the nondestructive devices, and estimated measurement reliability of the penetrometer. Subjective firmness sensing by compression of cherries between the fingers of human evaluators proved to be less reliable than the devices tested. Sweet cherry firmness correlated reasonably well with skin color, with the strength of the correlations from each device agreeing with device ranking in terms of firmness measurement reliability. Firmness correlated poorly with soluble solids, titratable acidity, and specific gravity; soluble solids correlated well with specific gravity; and skin color correlated reasonably well with both soluble solids and specific gravity. Fruit surface pit volume, induced by a specific impact force from a ball bearing, correlated relatively well with fruit firmness measured by the penetrometer, but poorly or inconsistently with measurements from the remaining firmness devices.