This project started on Nov. 1st, 2019. So, this is the sixth quarterly report (1/31/21-4/30/21). There are two objectives in this project.
The progress of each objective is listed here:
Objective 1. Evaluation of blended juice using released HLB-tolerant sweet orange/mandarin cultivars via analyses of sensory and consumer acceptance.
Brief summary of the achievements from the previous quarters: sensory for Sugar Belle blended with Hamlin and Valencia were completed in the first year. For this fruit season 2020- 2021, the second year of our project, we have been repeating the process and sensory study to determine the quality consistent. Early season cultivar Hamlin was processed and blended with Sugar Belle for the sensory study.
In this quarter, late season Valencia was harvested and processed. Sensory study has been scheduled on May 26th. The completed sensory and consumer study will include 1) a commercial product; 2) 90% Valencia blended with 10% Sugar Belle; 3) 50% Valencia blended with 50% Sugar Belle; 4) 100% Valencia; 5) 100% Sugar Belle. The sensory attributes will include: sweetness, sourness, bitterness, overall flavor, orange flavor, overall liking and flavor liking etc. The consumer attitude toward mandarin blended orange juice will be included in the survey. In addition, the price consumer would like to pay for each sample, which could provide more information on consumer liking regard each sample will be included.
Objective 2. Identify more tolerant cultivars resembling the quality of Valencia for the juice market, and identify a chemistry definition of consumer accepted orange flavor
Brief summary of the achievements from the previous quarters: we collected about 20 mandarin hybrids, pure mandarins and sweet orange, which have been identified with the great field performance. In the previous year, we have completed all the sensory studies all the Gas-Chromatography analysis for all the aromas.
In this quarter, we have completed LC-MS/MS data and correlated all flavor data with analytical data to understand the chemistry definition of sweet orange and mandarin. From the results, we could clearly conclude the major difference between sweet orange flavor and mandarin flavor. For example, more aldehydes were correlated with sweet orange flavor but more terpenoids were correlated with mandarin flavor. A manuscript about this study is in the preparation. Hope could be published by the next quarter.