Fruit and Vegetable Quality

ceptable) and a descriptive panel to quantify the critical quality charac-
teristics (Baldwin et al., 1995). Flavor acceptability equations were de-
rived for fresh mango puree (Malundo, 1996) and citrus beverages (Reed,
1998) using similar methodology. In only the last case were separate
equations derived for different segments. A reasonably clear distinction
was achieved between purchase and consumption acceptability of six
tomato cultigens, but less success was achieved in distinguishing the fla-
vor of mango purees. Segmentation will be necessary in flavor studies
and the quality enhancement model is not good at determining small dif-
ferences between samples (Reed, 1998). Its utility will be in quantify-
ing the role of specific characteristics in acceptability with the idea of
improving acceptability.
In studies with bananas, participating consumers were presented with
four hands representing differing maturity levels and asked to identify
the hand they would be most likely to purchase and least likely to pur-
chase as well as the most and least likely to consume. As expected, stages
4 (green tips) and 5 (more green than yellow) were most likely to be
purchased while stage 7 (brown spots) was least likely to be purchased
(Table 8.1). Consumers clearly buy their bananas with the idea of stor-
ing them as the preferred ripeness for consumption shifts from stages
4–5 for purchase to stages 5–7 for consumption. It is an interesting di-
chotomy that 43% were least likely to consume stage 4 fruit while a
similar percentage (39%) were least likely to consume stage 7 bananas.
At another station, consumer judges were presented with three sam-
ples of cut flesh representing different maturity stages (5–8) and asked
to rate the consumption acceptability (1unacceptable, 2acceptable,

152 FRUIT AND VEGETABLE QUALITY

Purchase Willingness to

Acceptability (%) Consume (%)

Maturity Best Least Best Least

4 38a 8b 8b 43a

5 42a 5b 29a 9b

6 18ab 12b 35a 9b

7 2b 75a 31a 39ab

Table 8.1. Effect of Maturity Stage on Purchase Acceptability and

Willingness to Consume Fresh Bananas by 228 Participating Consumers.

a,b—numbers in columns followed by the same letter are not significantly different (p.05).