Articles
Perfect pears for the next generation of consumers
Article number
1120_77
Pages
507 – 514
Language
English
Abstract
New pear cultivars are needed to re-invigorate consumer interest in eating pears and attract new pear consumers by presenting a product that is visually attractive, tastes good and has a desirable texture.
Consumer dissatisfaction with the consistency of fruit quality, particularly the ripeness of pears has limited pear consumption.
Delivery of consistent quality and convenience will play important roles in increasing per capita consumption.
The most promising new cultivars developed by the Australian Pear Breeding Program over the last two decades are ‘ANP-0118’ and ‘ANP-0131’. ‘ANP-0118’ is a tree ripened pear derived from a cross between ‘Butirra Précoce Morettini’ and ‘Corella’, and ‘ANP-0131’ is a green/red bi-coloured pear from a ‘Corella’ × ‘Doyenné du Comice’ cross. ‘ANP-0131’ has been designed to meet the needs of the next generation of consumers with an attractive red blush and smooth pyriform shape to entice purchase.
A consumer preference survey confirmed consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for ‘ANP-0131’ over the standard fresh market cultivar ‘Packham’s Triumph’. Another promising selection derived from ‘Dr Jules Guyot’ × ‘Corella’ retains its green/red skin colour under short storage and upon softening shows a distinct colour change from green to yellow providing consumers a visual cue for fruit softening.
A light green pear from a ‘Doyenné du Comice’ × ‘Howell’ cross has potential as a fresh-cut product due to its negligible browning of the flesh.
A strong relationship between the chlorophyll-a content in the mesocarp and firmness (r2 = 0.74) of ‘ANP-0118’ highlighted the use of the DA meter to non-destructively measure harvest maturity in pear.
Consumer dissatisfaction with the consistency of fruit quality, particularly the ripeness of pears has limited pear consumption.
Delivery of consistent quality and convenience will play important roles in increasing per capita consumption.
The most promising new cultivars developed by the Australian Pear Breeding Program over the last two decades are ‘ANP-0118’ and ‘ANP-0131’. ‘ANP-0118’ is a tree ripened pear derived from a cross between ‘Butirra Précoce Morettini’ and ‘Corella’, and ‘ANP-0131’ is a green/red bi-coloured pear from a ‘Corella’ × ‘Doyenné du Comice’ cross. ‘ANP-0131’ has been designed to meet the needs of the next generation of consumers with an attractive red blush and smooth pyriform shape to entice purchase.
A consumer preference survey confirmed consumers’ willingness to pay a premium for ‘ANP-0131’ over the standard fresh market cultivar ‘Packham’s Triumph’. Another promising selection derived from ‘Dr Jules Guyot’ × ‘Corella’ retains its green/red skin colour under short storage and upon softening shows a distinct colour change from green to yellow providing consumers a visual cue for fruit softening.
A light green pear from a ‘Doyenné du Comice’ × ‘Howell’ cross has potential as a fresh-cut product due to its negligible browning of the flesh.
A strong relationship between the chlorophyll-a content in the mesocarp and firmness (r2 = 0.74) of ‘ANP-0118’ highlighted the use of the DA meter to non-destructively measure harvest maturity in pear.
Authors
S.R. Turpin, D. Stefanelli, L. Jones, J. Norton, R. Probst, J. Konings, G. Langford
Keywords
Pyrus, sensory evaluation, eating quality, harvest maturity, DA meter
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