Abstract
Consumer dissatisfaction with the flavor quality of many modern fresh market tomato varieties has fostered breeders’ interest in sensory quality improvement, and the demand for traditional varieties, which are generally associated with better flavor. To achieve further knowledge on the factors influencing the sensory quality and consumers’ preferences and perception, European traditional and modern fresh market tomato varieties were grown and evaluated in France, Italy, and Spain. Different growing conditions were tested in France (soilless vs. soil) and in Spain (open field vs. greenhouse), while in Italy fruits were evaluated at two ripening stages. Fruit quality was assessed by integrating physicochemical analyses, sensory profiles, and consumer tests. In all three countries, overall modern varieties were perceived as having more intense “tomato flavor” and “overall flavor” than traditional ones. In France and Spain, consumers’ preferences were more oriented towards modern varieties than traditional ones. Significant growing condition effects were found on sensory and physicochemical traits, while the effect on consumers’ overall liking was not significant, largely depending on the genotype. A fair agreement between product configurations from descriptive analysis by trained assessors and Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) questions by consumers was observed. Penalty-lift analysis based on CATA allowed identifying positive and negative drivers of liking.
Highlights
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely grown and frequently consumed crops worldwide (www.fao.org/fastat), representing an important source of essential nutrients and nutraceutical compounds to the human diet [1].Tomato fruit quality for fresh consumption depends on numerous traits relating to external, and internal attributes, most of which are polygenic traits influenced by the genotype, the environment, the agronomic practices, and the maturity stage [2,3,4]
A significant growing condition (GC) effect was observed for 11 descriptors, and, altogether, varieties cultivated in S were perceived as smaller, less firm, less crunchy, and less mealy, but juicier and meltier than HS products
We aimed to obtain consumer-based sensory profiles of European traditional and modern fresh market tomato varieties belonging to different typologies using the CATA method, and to compare these product configurations with those obtained by descriptive sensory analysis (DA) with trained assessors
Summary
Tomato fruit quality for fresh consumption depends on numerous traits relating to external (appearance, hand-evaluated texture), and internal (texture, flavor and nutritive value) attributes, most of which are polygenic traits influenced by the genotype, the environment, the agronomic practices, and the maturity stage [2,3,4]. Preference mapping studies conducted on fresh market tomatoes have frequently reported flavor and texture to be the main factors driving and differentiating consumer preferences [7,8,9,10]. The characteristic sweet-sour taste of tomato and its overall flavor intensity is chemically determined by a complex blend of interplaying primary and secondary metabolites mainly comprising of sugars (glucose and fructose), acids (citrate, malate and glutamate), minerals and multiple key volatile compounds [12,13,14]. Texture, which is a complex trait including several components [15], appearance, temperature, mouthfeel and previous experience, impacts the whole sensory quality and influence flavor and odor perception [12,13]
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