# Effects of the Fruit Harvest Date and Shelf-Life Nexus of Apples on Different Quality Perspectives
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Temporal Dominance of Sensations  
Figures 3-5 show the TDS graphs for the Braeburn variety pertaining to three harvest dates: unripe, ripe, and overripe. Each curve represents the evolution of the dominance rate of an attribute over time. On day '0', at each harvest date, apple firmness was the most dominant at the beginning of mastication, and, as time passed, the firmness decreased, but it was always above the significance level. Additionally, juiciness was dominant during day '0' and gradually decreased during shelf life. Martness was above the significance level at day '0' of unripe and ripe apples. From day '10' of unripe fruit to day '15' of overripe fruit, sweetness and flouriness dominated. Figure 4: TDS curves of evaluated attributes for ripe Braeburn fruit on different shelf life testing days—day 0 (a), day 5 (b), day 10 (c), day 15 (d). Figure 5: Cont. As for the Golden Delicious variety (Figures 6-8), firmness and juiciness are the most dominant attributes for all harvest dates and shelf life testing days. In unripe fruit (excluding day '15'), tartness is the most dominant, while overripe fruit is floury. Figure 5: TDS curves of evaluated attributes for overripe Braeburn fruit on different shelf life testing days—day 0 (**a**), day 5 (**b**), day 10 (**c**), day 15 (**d**). Figure 6: TDS curves of evaluated attributes for unripe Golden Delicious fruit on different shelf life testing days—day 0 (**a**), day 5 (**b**), day 10 (**c**), day 15 (**d**). Figure 8: _Cont_. Figure 7: TDS curves of evaluated attributes for ripe Golden Delicious fruit on different shelf life testing days—day 0 (a), day 5 (b), day 10 (c), day 15 (d). The first two components explained 61.4% of the variability. The bi-plot for Golden Delicious (Figure 9) shows that, at day '0', tartness dominated for the unripe sample, crispness for ripe and juiciness, and toughness for overripe. At day '5', unripe was tart and firm, ripe was sweet, while overripe was juicy and tough. At day '10', unripe was firm, ripe was sweet, while overripe was crunchy. At the end of the shelf life, unripe fruits were firm, ripe were tough, and overripe were sweet. After examining 15 TDS studies, [PERSON] et al. (2016) discovered that panelists often employed four qualities to characterize a single sample and that the order of the attributes had no influence on the attribute that was selected. Based on the findings of 21 TDS studies, [PERSON] et al. (2017) suggested that the number of qualities should be limited to approximately eight to ten. To prevent the first attributes from being used preferentially, descriptors must be distributed in random order among the panelists but must stay the same for a particular judge throughout the evaluation ([PERSON], 2016; [PERSON] et al., 2017). This helps the panelists to become familiar with the terms and scoring intensities. Figure 8: TDS curves of evaluated attributes for overripe Golden Delicious fruit on different shelf life testing days—day 0 (**a**), day 5 (**b**), day 10 (**c**), day 15 (**d**). Figure 9: The bi-plot of the first two components was obtained by applying a correspondence analysis factor map showing the positions of time during mastication by taste attribute combination along with harvest date and shelf life for two apple varieties—Braeburn (**a**) and Golden Delicious (**b**). TDS frequency values above the chance threshold (Figures 3 and 4) were used. Legend; unripe (UR), ripe (R) and overripe (OR); ’0’—within 24 h after harvesting; ’5’—5 days from harvesting; ’10’—10 days from harvesting and ’15’—15 days from harvesting; ’BR’—Braeburn; ’GD’—Golden Delicious; cirles – attributes; blocks – samples. Harvesting apple fruit at different stages of ripeness has a major influence on their storage life [69]. The quality parameters of the fruit at the time of harvest and after storage also depend on the degree of ripeness of the apples [70]. Braeburn fruits exhibit a high sensitivity to mealiness during their shelf life. [PERSON] et al.