Evaluation on home storage performance of table grape based on sensory quality and consumers' satisfaction

J Food Sci Technol. 2016 Mar;53(3):1363-70. doi: 10.1007/s13197-016-2177-0. Epub 2016 Jan 16.

Abstract

With continuous rise of table grapes consumption and increased public awareness of food safety, the quality control of grapes in storage after purchase is not sufficiently examined. Home storage constitutes the last and important stage in grape supply chain. Literature review shows that few researches on grape quality focus on the home storage stage compared with numerous researches reported on the quality control during postharvest and transportation process. This paper reports the performance evaluation of grape quality at home storage and consumers' satisfaction using integrated sensory evaluations. The internal attributes, including Texture, Taste and Odor of the table grapes and the appearance indices, Color and Cleanliness are examined. Key results show that during home storage, all the internal attributes decrease rapidly as time goes on, and cleanliness and color appear to be deteriorating in a lower speed. A comprehensive quality index was created to measure the quality of table grape which has high correlation with the Overall acceptability perceived by consumers.

Keywords: Consumer satisfaction; Home storage; Quality control; Sensory evaluation; Table grape.