Factor-area modelling of sweet cherry and sour cherry quality after hydrocooling treatment

Abstract

Preserving the quality of fresh fruit during postharvest handling and cooling remains an important challenge for the food industry. This study aimed to evaluate changes in the quality of selected sweet cherry cultivars after hydrocooling, using a mathematical modeling approach to represent quality characteristics digitally and visually. The investigated samples included the sweet cherry cultivars Valeriy Chkalov, Krupnoplidna, and Melitopolska Chorna, as well as the sour cherry cultivar Vstrecha, which were subjected to preliminary and slow cooling under convective cooling conditions. Unlike conventional sensory evaluation, which relies primarily on subjective organoleptic assessment, the proposed method integrates multiple quality indicators into a comprehensive quantitative model, providing a more objective and informative evaluation of fruit quality. For all investigated cultivars, only minor changes in the quality growth coefficient and the relative quality decline coefficient were observed after hydrocooling, indicating that the selected quality parameters remained stable following low-temperature treatment. Evaluation based on 10 negative and 5 positive quality characteristics showed that the Krupnoplidna cultivar exhibited the most favorable quality profile, with the smallest area of negative factors. In contrast, the Melitopolska Chorna cultivar showed the least favorable quality profile, with the highest number of negative parameters and the lowest relative quality growth coefficient. The proposed modeling approach provides an effective tool for the quantitative assessment and comparative analysis of the quality of fruit and berry products after hydrocooling.