Articles
Sensory evaluation and Swiss consumer acceptance of the new pear cultivar ‘CH201’
Article number
1403_4
Pages
37 – 42
Language
English
Abstract
‘CH201’ is the new pear cultivar of the Agroscope breeding program and was launched in 2018 as the trademark FRED® by VariCom.
The blush fruits are characterized by a high firmness and a coarse flesh that is far from typical melty pears.
In order to investigate consumer acceptance and to get a deeper understanding of Swiss consumer’s pear preference patterns, ‘in-store’ consumer test was conducted with the following four main pear cultivars ‘Conférence’, ‘Louise Bonne’, ‘Kaiser Alexander’ and ‘CH201’ after two days shelf life.
A different shelf life of 7 days was also applied for ‘Kaiser Alexander’ and ‘CH201’. Prior to tasting, fruit weight (g), soluble solids concentration (SSC in % Brix) and firmness (kg cm-2) were measured.
Appearance and taste liking scores were recorded using a nine-point hedonic scale. ‘Conférence’ and ‘CH201’ rated the highest in taste score, while ‘CH201’ got by far the highest score in appearance.
Agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) revealed three ‘taste’ groups of consumers.
Cluster 1 (n=39) preferred crunchy pears with coarse flesh, cluster 2 (n=94) liked sweet pears, while cluster 3 (n=14) preferred a fine flesh.
Three ‘appearance’ groups of consumers showed cluster 1 (n=54) with consumers preferring blushed pears, cluster 2 (n=73) was indifferent, but gave high scores to every cultivar; cluster 3 (n=24) was also indifferent, but gave lower scores.
An analysis of the purchasing behavior revealed that the following factors were important for the consumers: appearance/color, aroma, origin, firmness when touched and seasonality.
Consumers rated the factors fruit size, price and use for a special dish/dessert as less important.
These results showed the potential interest of Swiss consumers for the new pear ‘CH201’ and provided the basis for a marketing concept for the Swiss market.
The consumer-oriented approach allows the introduction of ‘CH201’ as a managed variety and increase the awareness of the brand.
The blush fruits are characterized by a high firmness and a coarse flesh that is far from typical melty pears.
In order to investigate consumer acceptance and to get a deeper understanding of Swiss consumer’s pear preference patterns, ‘in-store’ consumer test was conducted with the following four main pear cultivars ‘Conférence’, ‘Louise Bonne’, ‘Kaiser Alexander’ and ‘CH201’ after two days shelf life.
A different shelf life of 7 days was also applied for ‘Kaiser Alexander’ and ‘CH201’. Prior to tasting, fruit weight (g), soluble solids concentration (SSC in % Brix) and firmness (kg cm-2) were measured.
Appearance and taste liking scores were recorded using a nine-point hedonic scale. ‘Conférence’ and ‘CH201’ rated the highest in taste score, while ‘CH201’ got by far the highest score in appearance.
Agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) revealed three ‘taste’ groups of consumers.
Cluster 1 (n=39) preferred crunchy pears with coarse flesh, cluster 2 (n=94) liked sweet pears, while cluster 3 (n=14) preferred a fine flesh.
Three ‘appearance’ groups of consumers showed cluster 1 (n=54) with consumers preferring blushed pears, cluster 2 (n=73) was indifferent, but gave high scores to every cultivar; cluster 3 (n=24) was also indifferent, but gave lower scores.
An analysis of the purchasing behavior revealed that the following factors were important for the consumers: appearance/color, aroma, origin, firmness when touched and seasonality.
Consumers rated the factors fruit size, price and use for a special dish/dessert as less important.
These results showed the potential interest of Swiss consumers for the new pear ‘CH201’ and provided the basis for a marketing concept for the Swiss market.
The consumer-oriented approach allows the introduction of ‘CH201’ as a managed variety and increase the awareness of the brand.
Publication
Authors
D. Christen, J. Inderbitzin, M. Quennoz, D. Tschopp, M. Weber
Keywords
degree of liking, in-store consumer acceptance test, consumer profiles, consumer behavior, marketing
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