The impact of different ripening stages on berry texture properties of sorted ‘Red Globe’ and ‘Crimson
Seedless’ table grapes was evaluated. Density sorting at different harvest dates was utilised to obtain
homogeneous samples for each ripening stage. At the same ripening stage, ‘Red Globe’ berries were more
firm, cohesive, springy, chewy and resilient but less hard and gummy than ‘Crimson Seedless’. Particularly
for cv. Red Globe, the choice of the ripening stage at harvest could be a determinant for the berry quality
because riper berries were associated with higher skin thickness values (+25%). The berry hardness and
gumminess of ‘Crimson Seedless’ decreased significantly during ripening (−50%), and these parameters
were most influenced by the berry size. Conversely, berry cohesiveness can be used as a ripeness predictor
of table grapes because the changes during the ripening process were independent of berry size. The
peduncle detachment resistance of the berry in the Crimson Seedless grapes decreased to values lower
than 3.4 N, negatively affecting the quality attributes of the berr