Received: April 15th, 2021 ; Accepted: July 21st, 2021 ; Published: July 22nd, 2021 ; Correspondence: [email protected] the paper, the results are presented obtained in the research into the fresh bulbs and
the dried products of 9 onion varieties cultivated in the conditions of the Ukrainian Forest Steppe
area with regard to their economical biology, biochemical, marketability and organoleptic
indices. The varieties that are most suitable for convection drying and long-term storage have
been identified. It has been established that the marketability of both the fresh bulbs and dried
products depends on the masses of the bulbs. The Bronze d’Amposta and Harmony varieties
deliver the greatest amount of marketable output (94.0 and 93.2%) featuring marketable bulbs
with masses of 67.4 g and 70.4 g, respectively (r = 0.82). As the bulb mass increases, the amount
of non-standard (r = -0.81) and small (r = -0.76) particles in the dried product decreases
substantially. It has been found that the content of solid matter and sugars in fresh bulbs has effect
on the yield and quality of the dried and reconstituted products. The Harmony and Skvirskaya
varieties, the bulbs of which during the vegetation season build up 12.9% and 13.8% of solid
matter, respectively, are distinguished by the highest dry product yield - 17.1 and 16.8%,
respectively. Correlation has been established between the contents of solid matter and sugars in
fresh bulbs (r = + 0.58). During the tasting of reconstituted onion products, the highest scores
were awarded to the samples produced from the Skvirskaya and Harmony varieties - 7.0 points
each on the 9-point scale, as their bulbs had accumulated over 7.0% of sugars (total). Judging by
the aggregate of the researched indices, the Harmony and Skvirskaya varieties of onions are the
most suitable for convection drying. It has been established that the preservation of onions in the
conditions of stationary buried storage without artificial cooling depends on the duration of
storage and the specific varietal features. Within the five months of the test storage, the
preservation of bulbs of all the varieties was high and varied within the range of 80–93%. Longer
storage is expedient only in case of the Harmony, Skvirskaya and Gospodinya, for which the bulb
preservation rates for a seven month storage period has been shown to be equal to 90.2, 88.4 and
87.2%, respectively. It has been proved that the quantity of healthy bulbs depends to a significant
extent on the solid matter content in the bulbs (r = 0.93)