The interest on organic plant-based foods is constantly growing due to their health benefits and ecological importance along with increasing demands of the consumers for quality foods produced sustainably. Organic apples were known to present high content in polyphenols, compounds which are recognized to have multiple biological activities [1].
The aim of this work is to evaluate the variations in quality parameters (firmness, total soluble solids and titratable acidity) and bioactive compounds (anthocyanins and vitamin C) of three organic apple varieties.
Organic apple varieties (Gala, Golden and Red Prince) harvested at maturity from an organic farm in August and September 2018 were used for this study. Firmness, total soluble solids and titratable acidity were performed using instrumental analyses [2]. The total anthocyanin content was determined in acidified methanolic extracts by a spectrophotometric method whereas the vitamin C was monitored by HPLC. The firmness and titratable acidity were both significantly higher in Golden variety. The Red Prince variety showed higher total soluble solids and total anthocyanin content than Gala and Golden varieties, what recommends their use for processing immediately after harvesting or in the first few weeks, while the Golden variety can be stored under controlled conditions for further processing. The data also pointed that the Golden variety have high vitamin C content as well as higher firmness and titratable acidity values compared to the red apple varieties.
From these results it can be concluded that quality parameters and bioactive compounds of organic apples are generally influenced by the variety
