Technical Note: Assessment of Impact Damage to Apple Fruits

Abstract

An impact damage assessment of fresh apple fruits was carried out to ascertain the effects of height and surfaces on bruise area and impact energy. Five different impact surfaces namely: Cardboard (E), wood (F), metal (G), plastic (H) and foam (I) were used for the experiment. The weighed fruits were dropped from different heights onto the different surfaces and the impact bruised diameter and impact energy were determined. The results showed that impact damage measured in terms of bruise diameter is highly influenced by the drop height. Fruits dropped from H1 (1400mm) absorbed the greatest impact energies of 2.647KJ for wood, metal, plastic, foam and cardboard respectively which indicate that they suffered the most impact damage while the damaged area increased from 1,018.01mm2, 951.27mm², 660.61mm², 460.02mm² and 227.00mm² for wooden, metallic , plastic, cardboard and foam surfaces respectively at a height of 1400mm. The results obtained can be useful to food process engineers in designing fruits packages to reduce mechanical damage.

Keywords: impact damage, apple fruits, packaging, height