# Effects of the Fruit Harvest Date and Shelf-Life Nexus of Apples on Different Quality Perspectives
## 4 Conclusions  
This study builds on previous research on the quality of apples by employing different quality perspectives. Based on the established working hypotheses, our work fully confirms the first working hypothesis and partially confirms the second. Regarding sensory attributes, overall dominance sensations differ for both varieties regardless of the harvest date and shelf life. As for emotions, for Braeburn apples, the effects of harvest day and shelf life are more pronounced compared with Golden Delicious. Consequently, the expected outcomes were confirmed, and there was a recognizable pattern in sensory and emotional changes depending on the harvest date and shelf life.  
Future research should focus on analyzing these quality perspectives using different types of fruits. A limitation of this study may be the use of two apple varieties. Some conclusions may require further investigation on other apple varieties to be applied in  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline  & \(\mathbf{\chi^{2}}\) & \(\mathbf{p}\) & **Significance** \\ \hline Harvest date & & & \\ \hline Unripe & 14.371 & 0.025756 & * \\ Ripe & 16.961 & 0.009428 & ** \\ Overripe & 9.197 & 0.162798 & n.s. \\ \hline Shelf life & & & \\ \hline Day 0 & 10.649 & 0.030805 & * \\ Day 5 & 13.368 & 0.009611 & ** \\ Day 10 & 19.712 & 0.000569 & ** \\ Day 15 & 21.743 & 0.000225 & ** \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 6: \(\chi^{2}\) test regarding harvest dates and shelf life testing days for Braeburn variety. n.s., * and ** denote non-significant or significant effects at \(p<0.05\), 0.01, and 0.001, respectively.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline  & \(\mathbf{\chi^{2}}\) & \(\mathbf{p}\) & **Significance** \\ \hline Harvest date & & & \\ \hline Unripe & 8.43 & 0.208262 & n.s. \\ Ripe & 5.873 & 0.437566 & n.s. \\ Overripe & 9.384 & 0.153106 & n.s. \\ \hline Shelf life & & & \\ \hline Day 0 & 4.469 & 0.346239 & n.s. \\ Day 5 & 5.917 & 0.205433 & n.s. \\ Day 10 & 2.962 & 0.564205 & n.s. \\ Day 15 & 3.157 & 0.531904 & n.s. \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 7: \(\chi^{2}\) test regarding harvest dates and shelf life testing days for the Golden Delicious variety. n.s. denotes non-significant or significant effects at \(p<0.05\), 0.01, and 0.001, respectively.  
general. Additionally, future research should include biochemical and microbiological analyses, such as acidity, sugar content, soluble solids content, starch pattern index, etc.  
Considering that this study did not use implicit emotion measurements, future research could include this type of analysis. The experimental setup could be similar to the one used in [PERSON]'s study [52]; participants would not be aware that they are being recorded, they would have about 20 s to decide on the emotion triggered by eating an apple, and then they would complete a questionnaire. At the end of the test, we would inform them that they were recorded and ask for their informed consent to use the video footage for further analysis.  
Conceptualization, A.S., D.R. and I.D.; methodology, A.S., I.D. and D.R.; validation, M.F.A., S.M.L. and J.M.; formal analysis, M.F.A., S.M.L. and, J.M.; investigation, A.S.; resources, D.R. and I.D.; data curation, A.S.; writing--original draft preparation, A.S. and I.D.; writing--review and editing, all coauthors.; visualization, A.S.; supervision, D.R. and I.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
The participation of human subjects in the sensory studies conducted was in accordance with the Code of Professional Ethics of the University of Belgrade [74].  
All participants involved in the sensory analysis and oral processing study gave written informed consent prior to beginning this study.  
The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.