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Decaying Apple’s effect on Flesh firmness(Temp.)
Eric Huang
University of Florida
Dr. Coenen
March 31, 2021
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Introduction:
Fruits has been seen each day in many places, such as the supermarket, and using fruits
can add flavor on existing products or to be eaten. One common occurrence for the fruits
that are left alone for a certain period of time would result to the decaying of the fruits,
which my render the fruit to be unsuitable for consumptions. This study would use apples as
the subject of study to analyze the effect of the decay of apples, which may offer some
aspect to the properties of the apples. One of the properties that the apple experience
during decay, is the browning of its own flesh. The browning of apple can be seen when a
decayed apple has been cut open or if the apple has been left alone for too long and result
in the gradual decay of the apple skin. The browning of the apple would mainly be used in
this study to observe the changes that occur and gauge the effect of decay according to the
magnitude of the browning observed. The apples in this study would be put under different
conditions, which is by observing change in room temperature, refrigeration, water, and
frozen. The result obtained would be hypothesize as the frozen apple would be preserved
very well, while the room temperature apple would be at the worst condition.
Methods:
During this study, the required material includes tongs, about three apples, 5
containers, and toothpick or anything that can be used easily and test the flesh firmness. To
set up the experiment, you need to cut the apples in quarter pieces to provide more surface
area in which the apple would come in contact to increase the likeliness of the apple to
experience the decay faster. Also, if needed, one additional uncut apple could be used to
compare the effect of decay after the experiment. Once the apples are ready, put three
portions of the apples, each in their own container and put one in frozen of the refrigerator,
one in refrigeration, and one in room temperature. The two portions left would each be put
in a container filled with water of the same volume and needs to make sure the water is
clean or uncontaminated with any other visible substance, also the water sources need to be
the same to ensure that the water used in this study is consistent. Then one of the apple
containers with water would be in room temperature and the other in refrigeration to insure
the effect of water. Next, during each day, select a time to observe the apple and that
selected time would be consistent throughout the duration of the study to make sure the
decay would not have any extra effect on the apple with the difference in time. During your
observation each day, you would record the condition of the apples, which include flesh
firmness and if the browning of apple is observed or the amount of brownness that has
spread out on the apple’s flesh. By using the toothpick, you can observe the firmness of the
apple by trying to make a small hole on the flesh to compare the amount of force needed to
pierce the flesh. After the observation, one should record all of the data and compare the
data with the previous day.
Result:
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During the duration of the experiment, a few noticeable observations were made. Out
of all the apples, the frozen has remained little to no changes after the duration of five day
and the browning of the apple’s flesh did not occur on any of the apples, except the room
temperature apple. The browning of the apple has observed to decrease the apple firmness
dramatically, in which the flesh would only need the absolute minimum amount of force
need to remove the flesh from the apple’s body. Both apples that are in water has observed
to change the color of the water to a yellow tint and the flesh has seem to be filled with
water and the firmness has increase, but the flesh itself begin to have a brown color on its
flesh. As for the frozen apple, it has been very well preserved, which would most likely be
related to the property of a more extreme coldness. The changes that the frozen apple
undergo, was that its flesh did become very hard compare to the other apples in this
experiment, but it became less resistant to physical impact and would scatter in chunks of
frozen apple. Also, the additional uncut apple, did not undergo any major change. Overall,
the data collected were somewhat desirable.
Discussion:
From the observation of the apples, the browning would seem to occur faster without
the protection from the apples skin. When comparing the apples under conditions, only the
uncut apple remain relatively fresh without any help from the different condition. From this
we can identify that the skin of the apple will be the part with the highest resistant against
the decaying. As for the frozen apple, it seems that due to the property of extreme coldness
and the high water content in apple, the water in the apple’s flesh begin to freeze and
remain in the same appearance after the duration of the experiment.
