DEFICIT IRRIGATION IN PEACH AND NECTARINE: SENSORY QUALITY AND CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF THE FRUIT

The effect of deficit irrigation (DI) on fruit quality has almost entirely focussed on instrumental evaluation.
We were interested in assessing sensory quality and consumer acceptance of the DI fruit.
DI was applied to two peach (‘Ryans’s Sun’ and ‘Tardibelle’) and two nectarine (‘R-28’ and ‘Nectalady’) cultivars.
Consumer acceptance data were compared to physical and chemical attributes (dry matter concentration (DMC), fruit firmness, soluble solids concentration (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), and SSC/TA ratio), and sensory traits (sweetness, sourness, juiciness, intensity of flavour, and firmness). The combination of irrigation treatments and orchard characteristics provided a wide range of tree water status values, physical and chemical parameters, sensory attributes and consumer acceptance degrees.
Consumer acceptance was related to four sensory attributes (sweetness, flavour, sourness, and juiciness) and four chemical parameters (SSC, TA, SSC/TA, and DMC). According to Pearson correlation coefficients (r) between consumer acceptance and quality parameters the following ranking for best predictors of consumer acceptance was established: sweetness (r = 0.81), flavour intensity (r = 0.81), TA (r = – 0.81), SSC/TA ratio (r = 0.71), sourness (r = – 0.68), juiciness (r = 0.66), SSC (r = 0.56), and DMC (r =0.54). Consumer acceptance can be modified by irrigation management.
Sensory evaluation is a useful tool for predicting the effects of DI on consumer acceptance.
SSC/TA measured by instruments is an important predictor of consumer acceptance if complemented with information on juiciness.

VII International Symposium on Irrigation of Horticultural Crops

G. Lopez, M.H. Behboudian, X. Vallverdu, J. Girona , J. Marsal, G. Echeverria

consumer panel, fruit quality, Prunus persica, trained panel, water stress

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2014.1038.20