It is a conceptual presentation on sensory evaluation of the food which we consume in our daily life. There are few basic and experimental methods for evaluation of the food and food products.

1. A PRESENTATION ON
SENSORY EVALUATION OF FRESH AND PROCESSED
VEGETABLES
SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY
Dr. G. L. SHARMA Kumari Jyoti
(Course Teacher) M.Sc. Previous
Deptt. of Veg. Sciences Deptt. of Agril. Extension

2. INTRODUCTION
 Sensory evaluation is critical to understanding and monitoring flavor
and texture changes. Such analysis can be expensive, but it is
essential to understand what is happening in the mouth before
correlation with instrumental methods should be attempted (Muños
et al., 1991). Sensory evaluation can be used for quality assurance
and quality control purposes, but instrumental methods, if available,
are more economical on a routine basis. Consumer-based
evaluations are subjective and depend on the pool of consumers
being tested.

3. Scientifically fruits and vegetable testing is
done by using the 5 basic senses:
Sight
Smell
Flavor
Touch
Hearing

4. SIGHT
 Appearance, how
fruits and vegetable
looks
 Natural color
 Ripeness and safeness
 Color combinations,
consistency,
size/shape, garnishes

5. SMELL
 How fruits and vegetable
smells, odor
 Triggers hunger
 Indicates safety
 You can’t taste if you can’t
smell
 4 Basic tastes (10,000
different smells)

6. FLAVOR
 Sensory impression of a fruits and
vegetables
 Determined mainly by the chemical
senses of taste and smell

7. TOUCH
 Feelings of fruits and vegetables in
the mouth
 Affected by temperature (such as
spinach and blanched vegetables)
 Tenderness is the only sensory
characteristic that can be
measured by a machine

8. HEARING
The sound a food makes when
bitten or chewed (soggy,
crisp)

9. CONDUCTING DESCRIPTIVE SENSORY
ANALYSIS
 ROOM DESIGN
 The sensory laboratory should be set up specifically for the purpose of evaluating produce
samples.
 The test facility should consist of booths for individual evaluation of samples, a conference
table for training and a separate sample preparation room.
 Special booth features that enhance operation include a light signal system and a data
entry device (keypad, tablet digitizer or personal computer).
 The conference room should be large enough to accommodate.
 A conference table (or tables arranged in conference style)
that seats a full panel and “electronic write board” are needed.

10. Conti……
 Low-pressure sodium lamps, colored bulbs or theater gel filters over recessed lights can be used
to mask color differences.
 The preparation room for fresh-cut produce should consist of a separate room from the booths
and training room.
 If processing is done in a plant or food preparation laboratory, then the basic requirements of
counter space, sink and a refrigeration unit would be sufficient.
 Booths and conference room should be held at 22–24°C (7275°F) and 45–55% R.H.
 A slight positive pressure should be maintained to prevent odors from coming from surrounding
facilities or the preparation laboratory into the booth area.
For more detailed information, refer to ASTM (1986) and ISO (1988) guidelines.

11. FACTOR AFFECTING THE SENSORY QUALITY OF
FRUTIES AND VEGETABLES………
 Cultivar differences can have significant effects on flavor and texture. Cultural and environmental conditions
(climate, fertilizer application, soil conditions) can also cause changes in a given cultivar that could affect
flavor and texture. Some cultivars are typically sweeter, have a more intense characteristic flavor or a softer
texture. Some cultivars retain quality during fresh-cut storage better than others.
 Immature fruit tend to get harder during storage than mature fruit. Fruit maturity affects fruit quality,
significantly (Watada and Qi, 1999). Immature fruit lack good sensory quality, and over-mature fruit have
limited shelf life capacity.
 Processing environment is critical to flavor and texture quality as well as to minimizing microbial problems.
The temperature of the processing room should be maintained at 2.8°C. Contact surfaces need to be
routinely cleaned and sanitized.
 Irradiation has been proposed as a means of extending shelf life, but in whole fruits and vegetables, the
doses required for microbial spoilage prevention cause tissue softening

12. Conti……
 Packaging normally creates an atmosphere to maintain conditions that increase product storage
time. Permeability of the film can be selected to retard or enhance chlorophyll degradation, control
browning, delay mold development and retard growth of some microorganisms
 Storage temperatures that are too low can cause chilling injury. Chilling injury weakens tissues,
because they are unable to carry on normal metabolic processes. After chilling injury, produce may
look sound, but upon warming up slightly, they develop symptoms such as pitting, skin blemishes,
internal discoloration or failure to ripen.

13. CONCLUSION
Flavor and texture of fresh-cut produce are critical to consumer satisfaction. Sensory quality can be
affected at every step from production to storage conditions at the point of consumption, and
descriptive analysis is an effective tool to measure and monitor these differences. Produce
optimization needs to be considered at each point in the production, processing and distribution
chain. When sensory evaluation is implemented on fresh-cut produce, it must be carried out under
very controlled and consistent conditions. This chapter has given an overview of what is involved in
descriptive sensory analysis and how different aspects of the processing and distribution chain can
affect sensory properties.

14. RESOURCES
www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c10/e5-08-04-04
. http://www.crcnetbase.com/
http://agropedialabs.iitk.ac.in/
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/