Cooling and storage of fruit
All cultivars, except for Granny Smith, must be cooled to –0.5°C within five days. In the case of
Granny Smith, the rate of cooling is extended to 10 days to reduce the potential of core flush
during long term storage. Fruit may be packed directly from harvest without prior storage, in
which case fruit are first cooled to below 5 °C and must be packed within two hours. Apples
stored under regular air (RA) are maintained at –0.5 °C until packed. Bins are tracked from the
orchard to the pack house and identified by different pick codes depending on their harvest
maturity. Early harvested fruit are packed first, followed by post optimum harvested fruit. Apples
picked during the optimum harvest window, have the highest storage potential and so are
maintained either under RA or controlled atmosphere (CA) storage and packed later. In South
Africa CA regimes differ with cultivar and generally have lower O2/CO2 levels than in the USA.
Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Royal Gala are all maintained at 1.5% O2 and 1.5% CO2;
Golden Delicious at a higher CO2 concentration of 2.5%, and Pink Lady® brand apples at 3.0%
O2 and only 1.0% CO2. Fruit are stored at –0.5 °C and an RH of 85%, except for Granny Smith,
which may be stored at slightly higher temperatures. CA rooms must be at the correct gas levels
within four days and fruit at the correct storage temperature within seven days. Golden Delicious
and Red Delicious may be stored up to 9 months under CA, and Granny Smith, Royal Gala and
Pink Lady® brand apples, 10, 7 and 6 months, respectively.