Browsing by Subject "descriptive analyse"

Current domestic, commercial apple cultivars seem to have relatively short shelf life and there is only little information available about sensory changes during storing. Apple production is increasing and at the same time there is challenge to produce cultivars with long shelf life. The aim of this master thesis was to study the sensory characteristics of domestic apple cultivars during storage and to create sensory profiles for the apples. Soluble dry matter and dry matter were measured instrumentally during the storage. The objective was to study in which of the attributes the storage causes most effects and how long does it take for these effects to appear. Descriptive analysis (n=14, 2 replicates) was used to examine the sensory characteristics of 16 cultivars harvested in the autumn of 2010. The cultivars were classified as autumn (Jättimelba, Petteri, Samo, Vuokko, Heta, Discovery, Pekka, Summerred) and winter cultivars (Eva-Lotta, Konsta, Punainen Atlas, Tobias, Aroma/Amorosa, Lobo, Y9330, Åkerö Hassel). The lexicon was based on the descriptive analysis of apples from the previous autumn and consisted of 23 sensory attributes: six related to appearance (green, red, relative area of red, surface wax, outside and inside browning), six to texture (hard, crispy, toughness of peel, mealy, juicy, soggy), five to odour (intensity, grassy, fruity, alcoholic, mouldy) and six to flavour (intensity, sour, sweet, astringent, diversity, alcoholic). The cultivars were stored in a traditional cold storage (+3 °C, RH 80–92 %) and the evaluations were conducted 2–5 times during the storage. The storage had the most effects on the textural and flavour attributes. Almost all attributes differentiated between the cultivars. In the basic sensory profiles only the grassy and mouldy odour and in the storage test the appearance green, the odour intensity and grassiness, the sweet flavor and soggy texture didn’t make difference. Diversity and sweet flavor and fruity odour were explained better by soluble dry matter. Y9330, Eva-Lotta, Aroma/Amorosa, Discovery and Summerred showed a promising capacity for extended shelf life of up to 15 weeks.