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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #91776
Title: DISCRIMINATION OF GRAPEFRUIT JUICE VARIETAL DIFFERENCES BY AN ELECTRONIC NOSE EQUIPPED WITH METAL OXIDE SENSORS.

Author
item BAZEMORE, RUSSELL - UNIV. OF FLORIDA
item ROUSEFF, RUSSELL - UNIV. OF FLORIDA
item NORDBY, HAROLD - UNIV. OF FLORIDA
item GOODNER, KEVIN - UNIV. OF FLORIDA
item JELLA, PRASHANTHI - UNIV. OF FLORIDA
item Bowman, Kim

Submitted to: Seminars in Food Analysis
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/25/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Flavor, smell, and color of grapefruit juice are extremely important in conferring value on the product. These characteristics are therefore critical in determining commercial use of existing cultivars and potential for commercial acceptance of new cultivars from breeding programs. Taste panels can be used to assess these traits but are cumbersome to manage and difficult to standardize over time and across locations. Sensitive instruments are now available to fingerprint volatile flavor components in food products. One of these instruments was used to analyze juice samples from 24 grapefruit cultivars and grapefruit-like hybrids. The instrument was able to successfully discriminate between juices of different cultivars and the most desirable juices formed a group that was distinctly different from the least desirable juices. This type of instrument appears to have value in discriminating different cultivars of grapefruit and quantifying the degree to which new grapefruit cultivars have desirable or undesirable flavor. This may aid in efforts to develop improved new grapefruit cultivars that appeal to the majority of consumers.

Technical Abstract: Hedonic sensory screening of unpasteurized grapefruit juices from 24 cultivars generated scores which ranged from dislike extremely (1) to like extremely (9). A 12 sensor array detector was employed to evaluate volatiles from this collection of grapefruit cultivars. Output from the sensor array was sufficiently unique that multivariate statistics could successfully discriminate between juices of different cultivars. Discriminant analysis of sensor response revealed that the most desirable juices formed a group that was distinctly different from least desirable juices. Sensor responses for pigmented (red) vs. non-pigmented (white) grapefruit juices were not sufficiently different to allow successful categorization.