MATURITY INDICES

NS Thakur
 Maturity indices
Introduction
 Quality cannot be improved after harvest, only maintained;
 So, it is important to harvest fruits, vegetables, and flowers at the proper stage and size
and at peak quality.
 Immature or over mature produce may not last as long in storage as that picked at
proper maturity
 Maturity is the stage of development at which the produce has completed its natural
growth and is ready for harvest
 It is that stage of development, which ensures proper ripening
 Because of the great differences between commodities, the development of specific
indices of maturity for each commodity is required
 Fruits harvested too early may lack flavour and may not ripen properly,
 Produce harvested too late may be fibrous or have very limited market life.
 Similarly, vegetables are harvested over a wide range of physiological stages,
depending upon which part of the plant is used as food.
 For example, small or immature vegetables possess better texture and quality than
mature or over-mature vegetables.
 Therefore harvesting of fruits and vegetables at proper stage of maturity is of
paramount importance for attaining desirable quality.
 The level of maturity actually helps in selection of storage methods, estimation of
shelf life, selection of processing operations for value addition
Importance of maturity indices:
 Ensure sensory quality (flavour, colour, aroma, texture) and
nutritional quality.
 Ensure an adequate postharvest shelf life.
 Facilitate scheduling of harvest and packing operations.
 Facilitate marketing over the phone or through internet.
 METHODS OF JUDGING MATURITY:
1. Computation Indices:
 Calander date
 Days From Full Bloom (DFFB)
 Heat unit accumulation(Degree Days)
2. Visual indices:
 Size and shape:
 Colour:
 Persistence of the style
3. Physical indices
 Firmness
 Specific gravity
 Ease of separation
 Fruit weight and volume
4.Biochemical Indices
 Total soluble Solids (TSS)
 Titratable acidity
 Starch content
 Sugars content
5. Physiological indices
 Respiration rate:
 Ethylene production rate
6. Other method
 Light transmittance technique
 Magnetic resonance imaging
1. Computation Indices:
In these methods some sort of calculation of data is
done. E.g.,
a. Calander date
 For perennial fruit crops grown in seasonal climate is more or
less uniform from year to year,
 Calendar date for harvest is a reliable guide to commercial
maturity.
 Time of flowering is largely dependent as temperature and the
variation in number of days from flowering to harvest can be
calculated for some commodities by use of degree-day concept.
 Such harvesting criteria can be developed by the growers based
on their experiences.
b. Days From Full Bloom (DFFB)
 In this date of full bloom is noted and estimation harvest date is
made on basis of previous experiences and data.
c. Heat unit accumulation(Degree Days)
o Time required for the development of fruit to maturity after
flowering can be made by measuring the degree days or heat units in
a particular environment.
o A characteristics number of heat unit or degree-days are required to
mature a crop under:
o warm conditions, maturity will be advanced and
o under cooler conditions, maturity is delayed.
o The number of degree days to maturity is determined over a period
of several years by obtaining the algebraic sum from the differences,
plus or minus, between the daily mean temperatures and a fixed base
temperature (commonly the minimum temperature at which growth
occurs).
o The average or characteristic number of degree-days is then used to
forecast the probable date of maturity for the current year
2. Visual indices:
These are the methods in which visual evaluation of
commodity is done.
Size and shape
 Maturity of fruits can be assessed by their final shape and size at
the time of harvest.
 Fruit shape may be used in some instances to decide maturity.
 For example, the fullness of mango and some stone fruits.
 Cultivars of banana become less angular in cross section as
development and maturity progresses.
Colour
 The loss of green colour of many fruits is a valuable guide to
maturity.
 There is initially a gradual loss in intensity of colour from deep
green to lighter green
 With many commodities, a complete loss of green colour with
the development of yellow, red or purple pigments.
 Ground colour as measured by colour charts, is useful index of
maturity for apple, pear and stone fruits
 Objective measurement of colour is possible using a variety of
reflectance or light transmittance spectrophotometer
Plate : judging maturity of tomato by colours
Persistence of the style:
On maturity the style no more persists on the fruit
3. Physical indices:
Firmness:
• As fruit mature and ripen they soften by dissolution of the
middle lamella of the cell walls.
• The degree of firmness can be estimated subjectively by finger
or thumb pressure, but more precisely with pressure tester or
penetrometer.
• Penetrometer measures the pressure necessary to force a
plunger of specified size into the pulp of the fruit.
• Such pressure is measured in pounds and kilograms force. 3
Specific gravity
 As fruit mature, their specific gravity increases.
 This parameter is rarely used in practice to determine when to
harvest a crop but it could be where it is possible to develop a
suitable sampling technique.
 It is used, however, to grade crops into different maturities.
 To do this the fruit or vegetable is placed in a tank of water;
 those that float will be less mature that those that sink.
 To give greater flexibility to the test and make it more precise, a
salt or sugar solution can be used in place of water.
 This changes the density of the liquid, resulting in fruits or
vegetables that would have sunk in water floating in the salt or
sugar solution.
Ease of separation
 It is the easiness of a fruit to be removed /plucked from plant.
 On maturity an abscission layer is formed at the point of
attachment of stalk to the twig so, the fruit detaches easily
with gentle twist.
Fruit weight and volume
 On maturity fruits attain particular weight and volume which
may vary in different cultivars of same fruit crop.
4. Biochemical Indices:
 Measurement of chemical characteristics of produce is an obvious
approach to the problem of maturity determination.
 The conversion of starch to sugars during maturation is a simple
test for the maturity of some apple cultivars.
 It is based on the reaction between starch and iodine to produce a
blue or purple colour.
 The intensity of the colour indicates the amount of starch
remaining in the fruit.
Total soluble Solids (TSS)
 TSS can be determined in a small sample of fruit juice using hand
refractometer .
 It measures the refractive index, which indicates how much a light
beam will be slowed down when it passes through the fruit juice.
 The refractometer has different scales (0-32OB), (28-62OB) and
(56-92OB) which can be read directly
 A drop of juice is put on the prism of the refractometer and TSS
content can be read directly on the scale.
 The temperature of the juice is a critical factor for accuracy,
because all materials expand when heated and becomes less dense.
 The refractometer is always cleaned before each reading and
standardized with distilled water.
Titratable acidity:
 It is the amount of organic acids present in fruits.
 Titratable acidity (TA) can be determined by titrating as indicated
by phenolphethalin indicator.
Starch content
 It is minimum at mature stage in non-climacteric fruits as with
the development of fruits the starch is converted into simple
sugars.
Sugars content
 It increases with maturity of fruits and is maximum when fruits
attain full growth and are ready for harvest.
5. Physiological indices
 These are the physiological changes in the fruits due to
biochemical reactions taking place inside fruits during ripening.
These include;
 Respiration rate
 It is very high during the initial stages of development and
decreases gradually.
 But in climacteric fruits there is abrupt rise in respiration rate
during ripening of the fruits.
 Ethylene production rate:
 Ethylene gas is released by fruits when they start attaining
maturity and ripen.
 Increase in amount of ethylene production is indicator of fruit
ripening
6. Other methods
 Light transmittance technique
 Magnetic resonance imaging.
 These are usually not done for the commodities to be traded in
domestic markets but, are essential for the commodities to be
exported to foreign markets