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