Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Postharvest Biology and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/postharvbio The different impacts of dynamic controlled atmosphere and controlled atmosphere storage in the quality attributes of ‘Fuji Suprema’ apples Fabio Rodrigo Thewes a, ⁎ , Auri Brackmann a , Vanderlei Both a , Anderson Weber b , Rogerio de Oliveira Anese c , Tassiane dos Santos Ferrão d , Roger Wagner d a Department of Plant Science, Postharvest Research Center, Federal University of Santa Maria, Roraima Avenue 1000, Camobi, Santa Maria 97105-900, RS, Brazil b Department of Plant Science, Federal University of Pampa, Luiz Joaquim de Sá Britto Street, Itaqui, 97650-000, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil c Federal Institute of Santa Catarina (IFSC), Campus Urupema, Senadinho Road, Center, Urupema, Santa Catarina, 88625-000, SC, Brazil d Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Santa Maria, Roraima Avenue 1000, Camobi, Santa Maria 97105-900, RS, Brazil ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Malus domestica Anaerobic metabolism Physiological disorders Ethylene Esters ABSTRACT The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the interaction between controlled atmosphere (CA), dynamic controlled atmosphere based on chlorophyll fluorescence (DCA – CF), and respiratory quotient (DCA – RQ 1.5 and DCA – RQ 2.0), with either immediate or delayed atmosphere establishment (30 days of delay) in the quality and volatile profile of ‘Fuji Suprema’ apple after long-term storage. Fruit stored under DCA, regardless the method, had lower ethylene production and higher flesh firmness, both at immediate and delayed atmosphere establishment. DCA – RQ resulted in lower decay incidence when the atmosphere was established immediately. Fruit stored under CA had the highest butyl acetate, 2-methylbutyl acetate and hexyl acetate, both at immediate and delayed atmosphere establishment, and its production was closely related to the ethylene and respiration rate. However, the ‘Fuji Suprema’ apple stored in DCA – RQ 2.0 had the highest total ester concentration and the highest volatile compounds that are characteristic to Fuji apples, such as ethyl 2-methyl butanoate, ethyl butanoate and ethyl hexanoate. The storage under DCA – CF resulted in the lowest production of volatile compounds by ‘Fuji Suprema’ apple. 1. Introduction ‘Fuji’ is one of the most important apple cultivar produced world- wide. However, during the last few years, new orchards are being installed with mutants of ‘Fuji’, like ‘Fuji Suprema’, due to its better red skin coloration (Silveira et al., 2007). Apples have a seasonal produc- tion, which makes necessary to store the fruit throughout the off- season. Nowadays, ‘Fuji Suprema’ apples are generally stored under controlled atmosphere (CA) with oxygen partial pressures (pO 2 ) far above the lower oxygen limit (LOL), which is the lowest pO 2 that fruit can be stored without the occurrence of undesirable quality changes. The storage of ‘Fuji Suprema’ apples under CA results in fruit with low quality after long-term storage (8 up to 9 months), due to physiological disorders (Corrêa et al., 2010), flesh firmness reduction (Echeverría et al., 2003, 2004), acidity loss (Echeverría et al., 2004; Corrêa et al., 2010), and drastic reduction in volatile compounds (Echeverría et al., 2003, 2004; Argenta et al., 2004; Lara et al., 2006). The pO 2 employed during CA storage is much higher than the LOL, which results in quality reduction. Nevertheless, in order to decrease the pO 2 until extremely low levels (< 0.4 kPa) is necessary to monitor the LOL periodically throughout the entire storage period. This technology was originally proposed by Wolfe et al. (1993). Currently, there are three methodologies to monitor the fruit metabo- lism during the storage: 1) based on the ethanol production (Veltman et al., 2003), 2) chlorophyll fluorescence (Prange et al., 2007), and 3) respiratory quotient (Brackmann, 2015; Van Schaik et al., 2015; Weber et al., 2015). Between these dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA) technologies, the one based on chlorophyll fluorescence (DCA – CF) is the most widely studied around the world (Wright et al., 2010, 2012; Aubert et al., 2015; Eren et al., 2015; Thewes et al., 2015; Tran et al., 2015; Zanella and Stürz, 2015). Apple stored under DCA – CF had higher flesh firmness, greener skin coloration and higher acidity when compared to the ones stored under CA (Aubert et al., 2015; Thewes et al., 2015; Tran et al., 2015). Nevertheless, the storage under DCA – CF significantly reduced the volatile compounds production in ‘Pink Lady’ (Aubert et al., 2015), ‘Pinova’ (Raffo et al., 2009) and ‘Royal Gala’ apples (Both et al., 2017) in comparison to CA stored apples. During the last few http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2017.04.003 Received 30 January 2017; Received in revised form 5 April 2017; Accepted 5 April 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: fthewes@yahoo.com.br (F.R. Thewes). Postharvest Biology and Technology 130 (2017) 7–20 0925-5214/ © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. MARK