Abstract: Three pear varieties (Pyrus pyrifolia cv. ‘Whangkeumbae’, ‘Yuguan’, and ‘Hosui’) were used to investigate the textural changes of pear fruit during storage and evaluate their storage lives. Magness-Taylor (MT) firmness, flesh firmness and stiffness were measured by puncture test, and overall acceptability was measured by sensory evaluation. Kinetic models were established for texture parameters of pear fruit. The results showed that MT firmness, flesh firmness and stiffness generally decreased with storage time, and stiffness was more sensitive to storage time than MT firmness and flesh firmness. In addition, stiffness had better correlation with overall acceptability than MT firmness and flesh firmness. The zero-order and first order kinetic models, logistic model and Weibull model were established for each texture parameter. The best results were obtained by the Weibull model. Based on the Weibull model and sensory evaluation,‘Whangkeumbae’, ‘Yuguan’ and ‘Hosui’ lost commodity value and should not be eaten when their MT firmness were lower than 14.762, 10.411 and 7.255 N, flesh firmness were lower than 8.215, 7.438 and 5.181 N, and stiffness were lower than 4.571, 5.572 and 3.609 N/mm, respectively. These results can provide useful guidance for pear storage and consumption.

Key words: pear, texture, kinetics, model, storage life