Domestic apple cultivars: Sensory descriptions and consumer responses

Lectio praecursoriaLaila Seppä

•Project “Domestic apple varieties: Sensory attributes and consumer acceptance”•Hanke ”Kotimaisten omenalajikkeiden aistittavan laadun kehittäminen”

•2009-2014 (Three harvest years)•Funded by Ministry of Agriculture

University of Helsinki Food and Environmental Sciences, Sensory Science LabProfessor Hely TuorilaPhDStudent Laila Seppä

Agrifood Research Finland (MTT) MTT Puutarhatuotanto, Piikkiö

Professor Risto Tahvonen

In 2009….

1. Sensory profiles for Finnish apples2. Information about consumer segments, and their

iindividual apple preferences and appreciations.

Why – Goals of the thesis

Why domestic apples?• Early, mid and late season cultivars

(Summer, autumn and winter cultivars)

• Traditional cultivars• New cultivars with enhanced properties• Innovative cultivation techniques• Important to local economy & farming• 6 % domestic4.8 million kg (2011), Aland Islands: 65 %

– 1990s 2000 - 2500 tn• Global warming

-> Cultivation area increasing

BUT: scientific knowledgeof their sensory and consumer properties was lacking

Omenan viljelytaito Apple cultivation and grafting

(Historiallinen koulukartasto WSOY 1976)

Malusdomestica

Malussieversii

USA KazakhstanKyrgyzstanWestern China

Omenan alkukoti

Origin of apples

(The world encyclopedia of trees 2003)

Villiomenapuu – wild appletreeMalus sylvestris

Omena legendoissa, saduissa ja uskonnossaApple in legends, fairy tales and religion

• “An apple a day keeps the doctor away“ (19th Wales)

• “Apple of one’s eye” (“silmäterä”)• Finnish Kalevala: Apple used as a synonym of bear

(taboo)– ”Otsonen, metsän omena”

• The Bible: “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil”– does not say, what fruit they are– in religious art usually depicted as apple

(Walt Disney)

Mythology• Scandinavian, Germanian

and Icelandic legends: – golden apples: source of eternal

life for the gods– may have been oranges

• Arthurian legends: apples trees in Avalon• Greek:

– Throwing an apple was considered a proposal to marriage

– Troyan war started with apples (Heta, Afrodite, Athene)

– Odysseia: several scenes with apples

Herkules stealinggolden apples

Omenoita 1600-1700-luvun kirkkotaiteessaApples in 17-18th century Finnish churches

Aatami ja Eeva Kolminaisuuden tuomioistuimen edessä, Pöytyän kirkko noin 1681.

J.N. Backman: Kruunupyyn kirkko, 1755-1761, yksityiskohta

Omena tulee Suomeen - Apples in Finlandsince 15-16th century

• Finland was part of Sweden• Law 1347: it is forbidden to destroy

a branch from a fruit tree

• In Vyborg 1440?• In Turku early 16th century?

• Noblemen, merchants, military, clergy had fruit gardens (PietariBrahe, Fleming, Kurki, Bonde) keen gardeners

• 1830 over 4000 fruit trees

• Occasionally bad year destroyed most of the trees

(Historiallinen koulukartasto WSOY 1976)

Kasvuvyöhykkeet - Climate zones• Based on DD5, cumulative temperature

over base temperature (5°C)• -> basis for early, mid and late season

apples (DD5 requirement varies between970-1350)

(Blomgvist 2009)(Finnish Meteorological Institute 2013)

Omenan taimi: varttaminengrafting

Apple trees (early May)

Uudet lajikkeet, esimerkkiBreeding new crosses (with DD5)

Huvitus(1026)

Lobo(1302)

Heta(1200)

Pekka(1230)

Tobias(1235)

Petteri(1120)

Sandra(1195)

Sensory science and methodology

What is sensory science? • Studying a product using senses

– > multimodal perception• Sensory properties guide our choises• Choises have consequenses: health, well-being, economics

Methods used: • Analytical methods

– What a product is like• Consumer methods

– How much the product is liked– Why?

What makes the ”taste” of an apple?

Tuorila et al. 2007

1) 2) 3)

4) 5) 6)

Total perception

SmellingHearingAppearance

Tasting

Our senses have many dimensions (interactions)

Chemosense

Challenges when studying apples• What is apple quality?

– EU regulations (85/2004)• Colour, size, free of defects

• Commercial quality• Sensory quality

• Variation in apple properties– cultivar– harvest year– place of origin (soil, water, microclimate)– individual differences (pollination, site on the tree) – harvesting– storage– maturity, ripeness

• ”Standard apple”?

Analytical Methods• Over 20 cultivars

– Traditional and new cultivars

• Descriptive analysis– Trained panel (n=11-14)– Sensory profiles (2009)– Shelf-life (2010)– Effect of harvest year (2009-2011)

Consumer methods

• Repeated liking and choices (three times)– consumer lexicon– clustering– 2010, n=108

• Pleasantness and willingness to pay– Experimental auction– 2011, n=118