# Effects of the Fruit Harvest Date and Shelf-Life Nexus of Apples on Different Quality Perspectives
## 1 Introduction  
Apples are one of the most popular fruits in the world due to their excellent nutritional and bioactive content and their sensory appeal. Consumption of apple fruit worldwide is mostly due to its year-round presence on the market and delicious blend of tart and sweet flavors [1]. The taste of fruit depends on its chemical composition (mostly) soluble sugars and organic acids), which, together with the volatile compounds (aroma) and the physical properties perceived by the olfactory system, determine the overall consumption quality [2]. Genetics, orchard and post-harvest management, environmental parameters, and biotic stresses influence the taste of apples and can vary in terms of location and year of study [3]. Improving fruit flavor, an organoleptic trait that determines fruit acceptance based on oral sensory perception, is one of the most important goals of apple breeding [4]. Many new apple varieties have an improved texture, higher soluble solids, and higher total titratable acidity compared with currently cultivated varieties [5]. However, older varieties such as Golden Delicious and Braeburn are still significantly cultivated varieties in Europe. A methodological approach that has gained popularity for assessing the quality of apple fruits and their postharvest behavior is the assessment of consumer acceptance combined with sensory descriptive analysis [6; 7]. Since consumers expect high-quality fruit above all, this is the main objective regarding why apple growers and processors work together [8]. Two crucial fruit quality characteristics that influence customer preference are texture and flavor. Firmness, softness, crispness, juiciness, and mealiness are typical characteristics of texture, creating this multiparameter feature [9]. Another complex quality is flavor, which is characterized by a variety of sensory elements, such as sweetness, sourness, and bitterness [10]. Consumers can essentially be divided into two categories: those who prefer firmness, juiciness, and certain acidity in apples, and those who prefer sweeter but less firm apples [11]. However, the majority of consumers reject mealiness as a bad textural feature [12]. In line with [PERSON] [13], overall impression among male consumers was favorable in terms of firmness and skin texture, while overall impression among female consumers most strongly correlated with taste, followed by juiciness, sweetness, and flavor. Different psychometric approaches and procedures based on the measuring of customer satisfaction--that is, the level to which the assessed product meets the needs of the customers--are used in the assessment of product quality [14]. One such method for illustrating requirements and how they affect customer satisfaction is the Kano model. The non-linear relationship between customer satisfaction and the fulfillment of specific requirements can be explained by this model. According to [PERSON] et al. [15], the approach is predicated on a series of paired questions, to which the customer's responses provide the classification of the examined needs into five valid categories: (i) Must-be (when present, they are considered an advantage; if not present, they disappoint); (ii) One-dimensional (customer satisfaction is derived from their presence, whereas absence leads to dissatisfaction); (iii) Attractive (these characteristics cause customer satisfaction, while absence has no impact); (iv) Indifferent (these characteristics have a minimal impact on customer satisfaction); (v) Reverse (presence causes dissatisfaction and vice versa); the invalid category is Questionable (when the answers do not make sense) [16]. Many researchers have examined this technique extensively, focusing on its theoretical application in customer satisfaction and product design [17; 18; 19]. However, only a small number of articles have addressed food quality [16] and food oral processing [20], revealing the perspective of this method in this study. [PERSON] et al.