Title: Evaluation of mechanical damage of Lady Rosetta potato tubers using different methods

Authors: Ahmed Mustafa Rady; Soliman N. Soliman

Addresses: Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 40546, USA ' Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Abstract: Instrumented sphere (IS) was utilised to evaluate several surfaces used in harvesting and handling potatoes (Lady Rosetta cultivar) by dropping the IS from 5 to 90 cm. The minimum dropping heights causing unallowable damage were 15, 15, and 25 cm on steel sheet, steel rods, and rubber-coated steel rods, respectively. However, the two-layer potato surface caused no unallowable damage in the drop height range of 5-90 cm. Tubers were dropped on the above surfaces and respiration (RR), bruise volume (V_b), and split area (A_s) were measured to assess the physiological behaviour after the drop test. The absorbed energy (E_ab) was calculated for each dropped tuber and the results showed that steel sheet and steel rods resulted in higher RR and V_b values compared to the coated steel rods and potato surfaces. Regression equation of E_ab with RR yielded fair performance for steel sheet and potato surfaces with an R² value of 0.78 and 0.56, respectively. Regression of E_abwith V_b resulted in an R² higher than 0.98.

Keywords: Lady Rosetta potatoes; instrumented sphere; impact recording device; IRD; respiration; bruise volume; mechanical damage; split area; peak acceleration; potato tubers; potato harvesting; potato handling; energy absorption; steel sheet; steel rods; coated steel rods; potato surfaces.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPTI.2015.074322

International Journal of Postharvest Technology and Innovation, 2015 Vol.5 No.2, pp.125 - 148

Received: 06 Mar 2015
Accepted: 04 Sep 2015
Published online: 22 Jan 2016 *

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