ORIGINAL ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1007/s10341-019-00458-w Erwerbs-Obstbau Quality Changes in Apple in Evaporative Cooling Store S. Akdemir 1 · E. Bal 2 Received: 21 February 2018 / Accepted: 4 October 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature 2019 Abstract The temperature and moisture content throughout the storage time changes according to the type and variety of fruit. So the ambient temperature and relative humidity in the store must be same anywhere. Different temperatures and humidity in different levels in the stores cause quality losses in the products. For this purpose, to investigate quality losses in ‘Granny Smith’ apple varieties in store has set a storage temperature of 2°C and a relative humidity of 90% with evaporative cooling system. Quality analysis was made from 3 different levels. The levels for statistical evaluations were called as top, middle and bottom. Analysis of variance was performed as the statistical analysis. The analyses were repeated monthly. In the statistical analysis, the mean weight loss was 0.78%, the lowest fruit firmness was 5.9kg, the lowest TSS value was 14.1% in the bottom level, and the lowest acid value was 0.67% in the top level. It was determined the highest pH value with 3.41 in the bottom level at the end of storage while the pH of the fruit at harvest was 3.25. At the end of the storage period at the highest respiratory rate in the top level 39.1mg CO2/kg*h were determined. Keywords Apple · Cold storage · Evaporative cooling · Quality analysis Qualitätsveränderungen von Äpfeln bei Lagerung mit bewegter Kühlung Schlüsselwörter Apfel · Kühllagerung · Bewegte Kühlung · Qualitätsanalysen Aims and Background Cold stores cooled with machine replaced instead of ordi- nary stores by increasing of scientific studies (Özcan 1990). Storage of apples without losing quality for a long time de- pends on many factors such as harvest maturity and storage conditions. During the post-harvest handling and storage of apples, a total loss was found as 11.3% (Skende 1999). In addition, storage losses of apples occurred as 25–28% for 7 months (Eri¸ s et al. 1992). From this perspective, approx- imately 500–700,000 tons of apple from 2.48 million tons of apple production have not been able to come to our table (FAO 2017). Water loss during long storage of apples is due  S. Akdemir sakdemir@nku.edu.tr 1 Technical Sciences Vocational School, Machinery Programme, Tekirdag Namik Kemal University, Tekirdag, Turkey 2 Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Namık Kemal University, Tekirdag, Turkey to by the transpiration of the fruit, which is a physiolog- ical process that persists throughout storage (Veraverbeke et al. 2003). It is important to minimize the rate of ongoing metabolic events in the fruit during storage. This is possible with the slowing of the respiration of the fruit. Therefore, storage factors affecting the postharvest respiration of the fruits and storage conditions can be determined as temper- ature, relative humidity, air movement, composition of air and air pressure in the cold store (Karaçalı 2009; Kayna¸ s 1987). One of the most important factors in apple storage is the prevention of water loss and high relative humidity. If the moisture content in the store is not sufficient, cooling may lead to water loss in the product, resulting in a reduc- tion in the quantity of the product, deterioration and internal degradation (Karaman et al. 2009). The temperature of the store could be adjusted to 0–4°C depending on the vari- eties, changing these temperatures as little as possible dur- ing the storage period and having a relative humidity within the store of 85–90% for a good apple preserve (Pekmezci 1975). The storage possibilities of apples can vary between 1–12 months depending on variety, ecology and harvesting time. It can be easily maintained between –1 °C and +4 °C K