November of 1960. The fruit of the March sampling had been stored in a controlled- 
atmosphere storage. The apples originated from one Connecticut and six New York 
orchards and were in commercial warehouses for 2 to 6 months before they were pack- 
aged. 
The fruit was packaged at a packinghouse about 60 miles north of New York City in 
the apple-growing region of the Hudson Valley. Usually, the grading and packaging were 
done the day the apples were received at the plant. Apples of U. S. No. 1 grade were 
packaged in coded 3- or 4-pound polyethylene bags. The bags were packed upright into 
cells formed by corrugated partitions, 8 (single tier) or 12 (double tier) to a master 
container. 
The packaged fruit was then trucked the same day to a warehouse in New York City, 
and from there was distributed to local supermarkets by trucks, usually during the fol- 
lowing early-morning hours. The size of a coded lot varied from 125 to 400 cartons and 
ordinarily constituted a day's supply to a distributing warehouse serving 100 to 125 re- 
tail chainstores. 
Sampling. --Samples from each lot were obtained at the packinghouse and in the city 
supermarkets and brought to the laboratory for inspection. At the packinghouse, a 
sample of 3 to 5 field crates of orchard-run apples was collected, in addition to a 3- to 
5-carton sample of packaged fruit. At the stores, a 2- to 4-carton sample was collected 
at time of delivery, followed by daily purchases of coded bags until none remained on 
display. In lot 7 an additional sample of three cartons was collected at a warehouse. 
Inspections, --Representative portions of the packinghouse, warehouse, and retail 
samples were examined soon after they were picked up. The remaining portions were 
then held at 70°F and examined after various intervals during the next 6 days. The ex- 
aminations of the packaged fruit were timed to compare the different samples at equal 
intervals from the date of packaging. At each inspection one-quarter to one-half of the 
bags in a sample were examined, and the amount of decay, punctures, bruises, and 
other defects was recorded. An index rating of 0 (none) to4(severe) was used to evaluate 
bruise and puncture damage. Firmness was measured with a Magness-Taylor pressure 
tester. The orchard-run samples were similarly scored after grading out fruit that 
failed to meet U. S. No. 1 standards. 
RESULTS 
The retail quality of McIntosh apples in every lot surveyed was seriously impaired 
by the presence of two defects: Disfiguring punctures and unsightly bruises. These 
mechanical injuries, furthermore, resulted in considerable decay within 1 week after the 
fruit was packaged. 
Punctures. --The incidence of skin breaks or punctures progressively increased in 
all lots at each marketing stage (tables 1 and 2). Punctures indexed from 0.1 to 0.4 in 
orchard-run samples. The higher incidence in the first year probably was related to the 
harvesting of a comparatively softer apple and possibly to rougher handling. Despite 
prior grading, most packaged samples picked up at the packing plant showed somewhat 
more puncturing than the orchard-run samples from which these apples were packed. 
There was a substantial increase in punctures, 40 to 100 percent, in the transport of 
packaged samples to stores. While fruit was on store shelves, puncturing continued to 
increase, averaging 0.9 in purchased retail samples. Furthermore, the punctures in 
these samples generally were deeper and more ragged. Most of the punctures were 
caused by stems. In lot 7, for instance, 96 percent of the apples visibly scarred by skin 
breaks were punctured by stems. 
Bruising. --Essentially, the bruising pattern closely followed that of the punctures 
(tables 3 and 4). Apples indexed 0.5 to 1.3 before grading and from 1.0 to 1.5 after 
packaging. The greater initial bruise damage the second year in the orchard-runsamples 
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