Near-term approaches of using alternative HLB-tolerant cultivars for increased production and improved juice quality

1. Please state project objectives and what work was done this quarter to address them:This project ends at the end of October, 2021, so this is the last report. There are two objectives in this project, and theprogress of each objective is listed here: Objective 1. Evaluation of blended juice using released HLB-tolerant sweetorange/mandarin cultivars via analyses of sensory and consumer acceptance. All the sensory studies have beencompleted to verity the potential of blending Sugar Belle juice with early variety (Hamlin) and late variety (Valencia). Fromthe results obtained, 50/50 Sugar Belle blend was preferred by most panel. Ten percentage of Sugar Belle blended withHamlin could improve the juice appearance and flavor significantly, while 10% of Sugar Belle blended with Valencia didn’timprove the juice quality significantly. In addition, a shelf life study for the Sugar Belle juice has been studied. In a 90-dayshelf-life study, Sugar Belle juice was stored at 4 °C and samples were tested at day 0, 30, 60 and 90. A sensory panelwas used to determine the changes of sweetness, bitterness and overall flavor. For the samples of the first year, we didn’tobserve any significant changes (p=0.05) over time for the storage intervals, while for the second year, samples at day 0were different from other intervals indicating the thawing process may affect the samples at day 0. Objective 2. Identifymore tolerant cultivars resembling the quality of Valencia for the juice market, and identify a chemistry definition ofconsumer accepted orange flavor. In this quarter, our main focus was to put all the data and results into a publication. Apublication entitled “Identification of key flavor compounds in citrus fruits: a flavoromics approach” has been completedand now published in Journal of ACS Food Science & Technology:https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.1c003042. Please state what work is anticipated for next quarter:This project has been completed.3. Please state budget status (underspend or overspend, and why):The budget has been spent appropriately.