USE OF TACTILE AND VISUAL CUES IN CONSUMER JUDGMENTS OF APPLE RIPENESS

The relative importance of visual and tactile cues in consumer assessments of'Royal Gala'apple ripeness were studied in relation to commercial maturity indices which included background color, blush, weight and skin greasiness. Apples were evaluated by consumers under 3 sensory conditions to isolate their use of visual and tactile cues. Individual fruit were harvested to provide apples which independently varied in background color, blush and weight. Visual cues of skin color were found to be greater drivers of perceived apple ripeness than tactile cues of skin greasiness and apple firmness. Amongst the visual cues tested, the hue of the background color had the greatest impact on consumer judgments of'Royal Gala'apple ripeness. Consumer's ideal'Royal Gala'apple ripeness was achieved with a background color between chip levels 5 and 8, blush coverage between 33-66% and weighing between 130-142 g.