Preference of South African consumers for the eating quality and appearance of apples

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Considering that 27% of South Africa's apple crop is sold locally, we aimed to determine theattributes that drive South African consumers' apple eating quality and appearancepreferences. Since a previous study focused on consumers from Stellenbosch in the WesternCape Province, we focused on consumers from Pretoria in Gauteng Province as well asconsumers from Durban in Kwa-Zulu Natal Province of varying age (18-25, 26+), gender andsocio-economic backgrounds. Consumer preference analysis for apple eating quality andappearance, and descriptive sensory analysis were performed on nine commercial applecultivars selected to obtain large variations in the various eating quality attributes and notcompared to each other per se.On average, young (18-25) white and Indian consumers were found to prefer firm, sourcultivars and green peel colour but disliked mealiness and sponginess. Black, older and maleconsumers generally preferred sweetness, but disliked sourness. Appearance preferenceswere generally consistent with eating quality preferences. Consumers' actual liking scoresgenerally also associated with their conceptual preferences, except in the case of unfamiliarcultivars. Ward's statistical clustering indicated three consumer clusters with distinctpreferences for both eating quality and appearance. Eating quality clusters 1 and 2 (E1 andE2) liked sweet taste, tolerated mealiness but disliked sour taste. E1 also associated withsponginess, but E2 did not. E3 liked sensory attributes relating to firmness, tolerated sourtaste but disliked mealiness and sponginess. E1 and E2 were overrepresented with black andolder (26+) consumers while young white and young Indian consumers were overrepresentedin E3. Compared to international studies, the sweet-liking consumer group seemed to belarger in South Africa due to the general sweet taste preference of black consumers.However, since black consumers make up the majority of the total South African population,firm and sour apples should also be marketed to these consumers. Appearance cluster 1 (A1)preferred red and green/yellow apples, A2 preferred red and green apples while A3 preferredgreen apples.Ripening-related changes in eating quality attributes and appearance with increasing shelf-lifeduration impact significantly on consumer preference. We studied the preferences of differentethnic and age groups for 'Golden Delicious' and 'Topred' apples of varying ripeness levels.Coloured consumers, but older coloured consumers in particular, showed little to nodifference in preference for the eating quality and appearance of riper, softer apples comparedto less ripe, firmer apples. White and black consumers showed a decrease in liking with increasing shelf life duration. The shelf-life of apples could possibly be extended in outletsfavoured by coloured consumers. Black consumers do not seem to have a high preference forriper apples as suggested by the previous Western Cape study. Rather, their high preferencefor sweetness results in some tolerance of riper apples. Peel colour did not provide a goodindication of eating quality characteristics. In 'Topred', the red overcolour masked yellowingwhile in 'Golden Delicious', eating quality attributes changed much less than peel colour.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University