Consumer acceptance of organic and conventional sugar-loaf pineapples stored at 1°C and 8°C

Abstract

Pineapple (Ananas sp.) is a tropical and perennial plant belonging to the Bromeliaceae family. It is an herbaceous plant and is native to areas where wild species exist such as Costa Rica, Brazil and Philippines in Central and Southern America (Fernandes et al., 2008). Pineapple is the third most important fruit after banana contributing to over 20% of the World production of tropical fruits (Coveca, 2002, Hossain et al., (2015). About 70% of pineapple is consumed in the fresh state globally. The total production of pineapples in Ghana for the year 2014 was 661500 tonnes (FAOSTAT, 2016). The pineapple fruit has vitamins, minerals, fibre and enzymes that are beneficial to the digestive system and help in maintaining ideal weight and balanced nutrition. It is also a good source of vitamin C, minimal fat and sodium with no cholesterol, delicious, healthy and nutritious and can be eaten raw or used in cooking. The stage of maturity at harvest depends on the market that the pineapple is transported to. Pineapple for the domestic market is harvested at the fully ripe stage while unripe but mature fruit are for the export market. Maturity is important in eating quality of pineapple. The small difference in maturity of pineapple at harvest makes the large difference in eating quality and consequently consumer satisfaction. The objectives of this study was to determine the sensory acceptance of two varieties of pineapples of different translucencies with storage temperature of 1°C and 8°C. Organic and conventional sugar loaf pineapples were both stored after harvest at 1°C and 8°C for 14 days. Based on the formation of rings after cutting the pineapple fruit cylindrically, the stored pineapples were divided into 25-50%, 50-75% translucency groups. Consumer acceptance study was conducted with 30 consumers using 9- point hedonic scale. Consumers evaluated the appearance, color, taste, aroma, taste, texture, mouth feel and overall acceptability of the stored pineapples. Generally, conventional and organic sugar-loaf pineapples which were stored at 8°C and 1°C for 14 days, it was observed that majority of the stored pineapples recorded 25-50% translucencies. Pineapples with 50-75% translucencies was in the minority. The overall acceptability for pineapples with 50-75% translucencies varied from 6-8 which is interpreted as slightly liked and like very much. On the other hand, pineapples with 25-50% translucencies gave overall acceptability scores ranging from 6-7 which implied consumers slightly liked and moderately liked the pineapples samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) biplot for the sensory attributes and organic sugar loaf pineapples for three batches accounted for 80.23-96.7% of the variation. Conventional pineapples PCA explained 78.22-96.54% of the variation in sensory data set. Organic and conventional Sugar-loaf pineapples with translucencies of 25-50% and 50-75% stored at 8°C and 1°C were acceptable to the consumers. Pineapples fruits with 50-75% were highly accepted because the fruits are over-mature, since more than half of the cross-sectional area of the fruit is translucent and sweeter. The taste of 25-50% was moderately liked. It is recommended that organic fruits to be sea-freighted should have a translucencies of 25-50% to be able to withstand transportation without deterioration