Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa Planch.) belonging to the Hayward
cultivar, grown in central Italy production area (PGI ‘‘Kiwi Latina’’,
Lazio region) was studied. Five orchards, representative of the
main sub-zones of this area, were selected: Borgo Flora, Borgo
Podgora, Velletri, Cisterna, Doganella. Vines were trained to the
pergola system. At harvesting time (end of October) fruits were
picked when the fruit soluble solids content was around 7 8Brix,
and then stored in normal atmosphere at T = 0 0.5 8C and
RH > 90% for 5 months. Kiwifruit was then sampled for analysis in
March at ripening stage, according to the guidelines for sampling by
Greenfield and Southgate (2003). About 5 kg of kiwifruit from each
orchard were delivered to the laboratory, and equal amounts of
defect-free kiwifruit were randomly grouped into three batches per
orchard. Each batch was homogenized (fruit was previously frozen to
avoid oxidative phenomenon) and aliquots were taken for subsequent
analyses. Each batch was analyzed in triplicate.