QUANTIFICATION OF STARCH CONTENTS IN APPLES USING IMAGE ANALYSIS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIPS TO PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES

At harvest, the starch contents of apples, which were related to their maturity, were quantified by using image analysis. The stained area was measured by a computer vision system when an apple slice was stained with KI/I$_2$ solution. The stained area ratio of the stained area of the apple slice to its whole area, or the starch index, was defined as an indicator of starch content. When Tsugaru apples were manually sorted into immature, turning and mature groups, their starch indices were 0.374, 0.312 and 0.129, respectively. Meanwhile, the starch index had correlation to various physicochemical properties of Tsugaru apples. At the statistically significant level of 0.1 %, it was correlated with the pH value, bio-yield force, rupture force and color of intact and skin-removed apples. At the 1 ％ significant level, it had the correlation with the density and moisture content.