GLEANINGS FRO"!; THI] PACKING HOUSE SIQ^/EY 



During the iTinter of 19!^ii-5^5^ I made a survey of the condition of Ilclntosh 

 apples as offered to cons-omers in retail stores in L'assachusetts. This survey 

 revealed that 325^ of the apples offered to the consumer :rere culls, 2,2% were 

 Fancy or better and the balance v:erc mostly Utility grade. Such apples are no 

 inducement to a customer to come back for more, 



Miat was the principal trouble with these apples? Bruises, stem punctures, 

 cuts, rot and lack of color. Is this situation the fault of the store kee ~.er, 

 tiie middleman, tlie ti-ucker or the fruit grovter? "{here in the harvesting and iiiarket- 

 ing process does most damage to the i"ruit occur? It raay take some time'to find the 

 ^ ansiTer but a beginning was made during the ivlnter uf 1955-56 when a survey was made 

 * to determine the condition of the fruit as it left the packing houses. 



In this survey seventy samples ?fere obtained from sixty-four different growers 

 in various parts of the State, Occasionally two samples were taken from growers 

 who had two styles of packs. 



Samples picked at random, were obtained by taking forty-eight apples from a 

 lot which had been packed for market. These samples were carefully placed in a 

 cell type carton and taken to the laboratory at the University for analysis. 



Each apple was graded according to U, S. Standards, and an analysis made of 

 the belovT fancy grades to determine vfhy they were belov/ fancy. Also, the number 

 of bruises over one-half inch in diameter were' counted and classified, Blemshes 

 due to stem punctures, cuts and cracks were recorded. Other observations were 

 made but you are more concerned with results than procedure, 



Hovf did the apples in this survey gre.de out and hoiir did the results compare 

 \Tith those obtained the previous year from the survey of apples in retail stores? 



In the store sm-vey 2>3% of the applos were Fancy or better. In the packing 

 house survey ?1^ \irere Fancy or better which suggests a marked deterioration between 

 the packing house and the consumer. It should also be noted that there is consider- 

 able room for improvement in the apples as they leave the packing house. The vari- 

 ous packs ranged from 29% to 9k% fancy or above vdth half of the samples falling 

 in the 60-8O;5 range. 



The fact should not be ignored that S»'j% of the apples as packed for market 

 were culls and that 2%, contained some rotj Such apples do not encourage repeat 

 sales. 



'./hat caused apples to be belcn^v fancy as packed for market? The same defects 

 that caused them to be below fancy in retail stores, namely: mechanical injuries 

 and lack of color. By far the most iiv.portant cause for low grade fruit are bruises, 

 cuts and stem punctures. These mechanj.cal injuries amount to 61% of the total cause 

 of apples being below fancy at the packing nouse as compared with ^% in retail 

 stores. The lessons to be draim from this are: 1, That grov/ers should look more 

 critically at their ovm packs before accusing the storekeepers of causing most of 

 the damage, 2, That too much bruising occurs between the tree and the package. 



The percentage of apples belovT fancy because of insufficient color in packing 

 house samples in 19SS-S6 was 6% greater than was found in the retail store samples 

 in 195U-55, being 29% and 23% respectively. 



