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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Commodity Protection and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #377332
Research Project: New Approaches to Enhance Fresh Fruit Quality and Control Postharvest Diseases

Location: Commodity Protection and Quality Research

Title: Sensory characterization of two California-grown avocados (Persea americana Mill.) over the harvest season by descriptive analysis and consumer tests

Author
item HAUSCH, BETHANY
item ARPAIA, MARY LU - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
item CAMPISI-PINTO, SALVATORE - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
item Obenland, David - Dave

Submitted to: Journal of Food Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/2/2021
Publication Date: 9/12/2021
Citation: Hausch, B.J., Arpaia, M., Campisi-Pinto, S., Obenland, D.M. 2021. Sensory characterization of two California-grown avocados (Persea americana Mill.) over the harvest season by descriptive analysis and consumer tests. Journal of Food Science. 86(9):4134-4147. https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.15867.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1750-3841.15867

Interpretive Summary: Avocados are a favorite in the produce section due to their flavor and health benefits. Even though they are popular the flavor quality can be inconsistent, at least partly due to a lack of understanding of the factors in the fruit that influence flavor. Detail-oriented taste panels, composed of trained experts as well as consumer panels, were conducted over the season for two avocado varieties to identify aspects of the avocado that are key to flavor quality. Trained panelists identified rich, creamy, smooth, watery, oily, sweet, bitter, umami (savory), salty, astringent, buttery, nutty and green as elements that potentially impact avocado flavor. Both trained and consumer panelists found that textural aspects were the most important factors, these being creamy, smooth, watery and oily. The presence or absence of umami flavor was also impactful, although to a lesser degree than texture. With this new information additional progress can be made in improving avocado flavor for consumers.

Technical Abstract: In this work, complimentary descriptive analysis and consumer panels were conducted on ‘Hass’ and ‘Gem’ avocados, grown in southern California. Both panels encompassed at least 5 time points across the 2019 harvest season. The descriptive analysis panel identified and evaluated the overall richness, creamy, smooth, watery, oily, sweet, bitter, umami, salty, astringent, buttery, nutty and green. The texture attributes received the highest scores in both ‘Hass’ and ‘Gem’. ‘Gem’ showed more changes in its eating experience over the season than ‘Hass,’ which was confirmed by the consumer panel and agreed with dry weight data collected in a simultaneous analytical study. Free response data from the consumer panel indicated that flavorful was correlated with creamy, firm, savory, rich and salty. This is the first work to characterize avocado flavor with a trained sensory panel and show how the flavor is impacted by the harvest point in the season.