CARACTERIZACIÓN FISICOQUÍMICA Y ORGANOLÉPTICA DEL FRUTO DE AGRAZ (Vaccinium meridionale Swartz)

With the purpose to find out some physiochemical characteristics of Andean blueberry fruits from which exist few knowledge about its quality, fruits were collected from Chiquinquira (Boyaca), and packed in plastic boxes of 125 g and stored during 9 days (at 2oC and 90% relative humidity). Each 3 days variables as total soluble solids (TSS), pH, total titratable acidity (TTA), citric, malic and ascorbic acids, fruit diameter and its weight loss were measured. The majority of physiochemical changes in fruits were lowest. A permanent decreasing tendency presented: fresh weight (from 0,58 to 0,55 g), diameter (from 0,.99 to 0,93 cm), and the pH (from 3,12 to 3,05, with a peak at 6 days up to 3.16), while TTA increased slightly (from 1,44 to 1,52%, with a peak at 3 days up to 1,64) and TSS from 14,13 to 14,73 oBrix. The HPLC analysis showed that citric acid was the predominant organic acid in fruits, followed by the malic acid (1.899 mg and 1.396 mg/100 g respectively), which increased from the 6th day of storage. The ascorbic acid (8 mg/100 g) presented a slowly decrease between day 3 and 6 of storage. It is supposed that the TSS, TTA and organic acids increased up to the ninth day of storage due to a concentration effect. In the sensorial analysis it was found that fresh fruits had a good acceptation in all evaluated parameters (appearance, aroma, flavor and texture) while the 9 days stored fruits only presented good qualifications in aroma and flavor.