a blend of properties translate into important sensations and how single
or blended sensations translate into Hedonic tones in consumers or cer-
tain groups of consumers. If we have collected some knowledge about
the underlying mechanisms, we can go backwards from the acceptable
Hedonic tones and try to identify those lower and upper levels of prop-
erties that combine to those sensations, which in turn combine to
acceptable hedonic tones. There may be multiple combinations of prop-
erties to form an acceptable Hedonic tone for one consumer group and
several different preference groups may exist in parallel.
EXAMPLES OF RELATIONS BETWEEN INSTRUMENTAL
AND ACCEPTANCE DATA
In the case of fresh fruits and vegetables, there are limited data on in-
dependent, factorial experiments to evaluate consumer reactions. One
example is the independent effect of sugar and acid concentrations in
tomatoes to which sugars and acids were added (Malundo et al., 1995).
Independently from each other, increased sugar and increased acid level
led to a linearly increased sweet and sour descriptive value and influ-
enced consumer scores. To study physicochemical attributes, as gener-
ated during production, and their relevance for the prediction of
consumer liking, we conducted instrumental and sensory investigations
on tomato fruits. In two experiments tomatoes were grown soilless, using
nutrient film technique in the greenhouse. A trickle system applied the
nutrient solution (Sonnefeld and Straver, 1988) to rockwool cubes placed
in a trough.
Experiment 1
In the first experiment six different cultivars were grown: round type
‘Gourmet,’ ‘Pronto,’ ‘Stamm,’ longlife type ‘Selfesta,’ ‘DRW3126,’
‘Stamm 157/93’; and one cherry type ‘Supersweet 100.’ Each cultivar
was grown, harvested and analyzed in three randomized replicates.
Experiment 2
In the second experiment, the concentration of the nutrient solution
was varied. Increased concentration of nutrients can increase the solu-
ble solids, sugar, acid and aroma volatile contents of the harvested fruits
which in turn could improve sensory taste ratings (Stevens et al., 1979;
Examples of Relations Between Instrumental and Acceptance Data 185