Project Number: 6621-41440-003-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Oct 31, 2004
End Date: Oct 19, 2009

Objective:
Develop and evaluate fruit and juice products for quality improvement to help U.S. fresh fruit industry and processors compete in a global market. Develop new techniques for evaluating citrus, tomato, tropical fruits and their products. Determine sensory thresholds on flavor compounds, determine interactions with other juice components and correlate information from sensory panels with quantitative data to help industry provide higher quality products and help the fresh fruit industry select high flavor cultivars.

Approach:
Determine sensory threshold values in orange juice for numerous important volatile flavor components of citrus. Investigate the effect of other juice components on aroma theresholds, such as pectin, sugar and flavonoids. Develop analytical techniques using gas chromatography, mass-spectometry, olfactometry and electronic sensors to quantitatively monitor changes in citrus, tomatoes, tropical fruits and their products during processing and storage. Use multivariate analysis techniques to correlate sensory and analytical data to help processors produce and objectively evaluate value-added flavor fractions and juice products. Screen citrus and tomato breeding lines for flavor, color and nutritional quality traits to develop molecular markers.