Research into the quality of vegetables, fruit and ornamentals

Determining the liking of fruits and vegetables is done by a consumer panel (hedonic panel). This panel, made up of buyers of the products, determines which products taste best. By using this panel, our customers can quickly find out which products are rated best for taste by consumers. Our consumer panel consists of approximately 250 women and men.

Tasting different fruits and vegetables

In recent years, the consumer panel has conducted taste tests with various products such as asparagus, beet, bell pepper, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, eggplant, hot pepper, kale, melon, pear, potato, pumpkin, raspberry, samphire, strawberry and tomato. If desired, produce can be cooked in our steam ovens.

Virtual assessment of fruits and vegetables

Besides assessing the taste of fruits and vegetables, our consumer panel can also assess the appearance of a product with or without packaging. Based on the customer’s wishes a questionnaire can be specifically made. The panel members can indicate which visual aspects of a product or packaging are attractive or unattractive. A visual assessment of fruit or vegetables can be combined with taste research.

From basic to customised

Products are rated by the consumer panel on pleasantness (liking) by default. The pleasantness is expressed on a scale of 0 - 100. Besides the determination of pleasantness, other question types are also possible, such as liking tests and Just-About-Right questions. Just-About-Right questions are used to determine the optimal presence of attributes in a product. Depending on the research question, the best method is determined.

Our trained sensory panels allow the different aspects of taste to be properly determined. The trained panel members indicate for which taste aspects the products differ. Trained sensory panels are used to better understand product differences and consumer preferences.

Taste profiles of products

It can be difficult for consumers to accurately describe what tastes good or bad about a product. Not everyone is able to name in detail what they taste. Our trained sensory panels consist of people who can taste well and are trained to name different taste aspects in products, think of sweetness, firmness but also green aroma or earthy aroma. Panel discussions on the taste experiences of a particular product group results in a list of taste attributes. The degree to which each attribute is present in a product is expressed on a scale of 0-100 and processed into a flavor profile. The sensory panel can identify the attributes that consumers subconsciously base their preferences on, something that is nearly impossible even with the most modern measuring equipment.

The trained panel can also indicate differences between products with a difference test. Here, panellists indicate which product from a set of 3 is different based on specific attributes.

The taste of fresh produce is important, but consumers buy products primarily with their eyes. Our consumer panel can therefore also be used to assess flowers and plants on appearance.

At our Bleiswijk location a special research area has been set up, the Mood Room, in which a shopping situation is simulated. Products are displayed in the room and assessed by the panel. With this research we can find out which product features are considered attractive and which aspects are critical in deciding whether or not to buy a product.

Flowers and plants

Is an innovative flower shape appreciated? Which flower colour is most liked? Which consumers would like to buy a particular potted plant? How are my products valued relative to my competitor's products? What emotions do these products evoke? Our consumer panel can help get answers to these types of questions. The research design is tailored to the customer's needs so that results provide clear insights that are useful to the customer.

It is possible to have various quality measurements performed in our labs. The quality measurements provide insight into product properties, such as sugar concentrations, acid concentrations, texture properties and visual properties. It is also possible to gain insight into the contents of fruits and vegetables, such as vitamin C, lycopene, anthocyanins and antioxidants. Please contact us to discuss the various possibilities.

Taste models

Our taste experts have developed taste models to quickly screen fruits for flavour levels. So far, taste models have been developed for tomato, strawberry, bell pepper and melon.

One limitation of panel research is that panellists are satiated of a particular product after a long series of taste tests. Extensive taste tests, or too many sessions with products that are very similar, create a lot of noise in the data. So the number of products that can be reviewed by a panel per day is limited. Therefore, in order to test a large number of products, taste models have been developed that can predict the outcome of a consumer panel from a few instrumental measurements. A model will never be able to completely replace a panel, but it does offer the ability to screen products for taste on a large scale.

Four flavour models are currently in use: for tomato, strawberry, bell pepper and Galia melon. With our expertise, it is possible to develop flavour models for other products as well. Please contact us in case of interest.

Taste model for tomato

The Taste Model Tomato uses certain instrumental parameters for taste attributes named by a trained sensory panel. The model places less importance on the occurrence of specific aromatic compounds, but uses the correlation between the attributes “sweetness” and “aromatic” and also accounts for texture aspects.

The model predicts the flavour level on a scale of 0 (unpleasant) to 100 (pleasant) with a certainty of 86%. So the model cannot completely replace the consumer panel, but it can collect data on taste on a much larger scale. This can help to quickly get a good picture of varietal differences and seasonal variation, or to monitor early in the breeding chain whether a particular taste level is present.

The Taste Model Tomato has been in use since 2001 and is regularly validated. It has become the standard by which tomato flavour levels are communicated in the horticultural industry.

We offer the possibility of shelf life testing using internally trained experts. They can assess various crops for criteria important for shelf life, such as firmness, colour, visual defects, etc.

Products are stored with us in our climate-controlled cells where we can adjust temperature and humidity to desired storage conditions.

Please contact us to discuss shelf life testing requirements.