The purpose of the present study was to analyze the variations of the physical and chemical characteristics of pineapple fruits commercialized at the "Entreposto Terminal de São Paulo" (ETSP), of the "Companhia de Entrepostos e Armazéns Gerais de São Paulo" (CEAGESP), from September/2005 to March/2006. Evaluations were made at the CEAGESP and in the laboratories of the Agro industry, Foods and Nutrition Department of the "Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz" - ESALQ/USP. Samples were collected from three different wholesalers at random, fortnight, directly from the items provided for commercialization. Pineapples were standardized as type 10 (boxes with 10 fruits) collected from each wholesaler/origin. The following characteristics were evaluated: weight of whole pineapple, weight of crown tuft, skin color, density, pulp color, pH value, contents of soluble solids (SS), titratable acidity (TA) and the relation SS/TA. Statistical analysis was made with Program SAS. Results showed that among the regions where pineapple grows, stood out in relation to offer regularity the regions of: Canápolis (cv. 'Smooth Cayenne') Sapé and Miracema do Tocantins (cv. 'Pérola'). The other areas that produce the cultivar 'Pérola' presented great variations in the weight average of the fruit commercialized, indicating technological differences among the production systems (where the fruit showed a considerable increase in weight). Throughout the period of analysis great statistic variation in the contents of soluble solids was noticed in the areas of Canápolis (cv. 'Smooth Cayenne') and Itaberaba, Sapé and Miracema (cv. 'Pérola'). Among the chemical variables analyzed, the use of the manual refractometer for determining the contents of soluble solids per sample, associated with apparent ripening could mean a remarkable indication in the quality of the commercialized fruit, which means that the use of ethephon in the pre-harvest period is not necessary.
Ananas comosus var. comosus; 'Smooth Cayenne'; 'Pérola'; fruit quality
