Evaluation of postharvest quality of strawberries in Italy

A national project to evaluate the quality of strawberry cultivars has been running in Italy for ten years. The aim of the program is to recommend cultivars suited to different growing areas. National and foreign cultivars have been assessed for at least two years for postharvest quality, including a short storage time to simu-late conditions during export. A score of 0 to 1 (0=poor, 0.5=average, and 1=good) was assigned to each quality parameter. In the Cesena area, the cultivars ‘Alba’, ‘Kore’, ‘Cifrance’, ‘Marjolaine’, ‘Queen Elisa’, ‘Idea’ and ‘Nadina’ had the highest scores, while in the Verona area the best were ‘Thethis’, ‘Darselect’, ‘Marmolada®Onebor’ and ‘Miss’. Additionally at harvest time, a sensory test was performed on some cultivars from both areas for sweetness, acidity, aroma and firmness. In the Cesena area, ‘Dora’ was judged sweet, firm and aromatic, followed by ‘Queen Elisa’. In Verona, ‘Darselect’ had the highest aroma level