Abstract: A total of 41 fresh apple samples from 21 varieties were collected from 7 major producing regions for this study. The quality indicators of cloudy juices from these apples were measured, including juice yield, turbidity, color, browning degree, light transmittance, soluble solids, titratable acid, total phenols, sugar, organic acid, VC, minerals, and antioxidant activity. The obtained data were analyzed by general descriptive and stepwise linear discriminant analysis. The results showed that the quality of cloudy apple juices varied with cultivar and geographical origin. Overall, a* value, original turbidity, browning degree, titratable acid, glucose, sucrose and malic acid varied significantly among cultivars (by 94.07%, 70.41%, 42.86%, 35.26%, 42.02%, 42.40%, and 37.69%, respectively). Due to their significant differences in color quality indicators such as browning, total phenols, antioxidant activity and nutrients such as sugar and acid, the apple juices from different cultivars were distributed dispersively. The browning degree, total phenols content, and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging capacity of the Starkrimson cultivar were generally higher, and the color quality was best. Most Fuji samples were rich in fructose, glucose, sucrose, malic acid and had good nutritional quality. In addition, the samples from different producing areas showed striking differences in turbidity, titratable acid, soluble solids content. The juice yield, original turbidity and titratable acid content of juice samples from Hebei province were generally lowerer and they were not suitable for juice processing. Similarly significant differences were observed among cloudy apple juices from different cultivars in Shandong province and among Fuji cloudy apple juices from different producing areas, and the discrimination accuracy for the cultivars and producing areas were 77.8% and 72.7%, respectively. The above results showed that there were significant differences among apple juices from different cultivars and different producing areas. Analysis of the differences in quality parameters can provide a basis for apple breeding and restructuring of planting industry. Identification and prediction of cultivars and geographical origins based on a discriminant model can provide guidance for apple juice enterprises to choose suitable cultivars for juice processing.

Key words: cloudy apple juice, variety, geographical origin, difference