Sensory analysis of broccoli over time: Consumer defined critical attributes and evaluation of digital photographs in comparison to real product appearance

The objectives of the present work were: (a) define the critical attribute of broccoli from a consumers’ perspective and (b) for broccoli compare the trained panel sensory evaluation of real products versus the sensory evaluation of the corresponding digital photographs. A panel of broccoli consumers evaluated appearance, aroma and flavor acceptability of broccoli with different storage times. Appearance acceptability was the only attribute where there were significant differences between storage times. Thus appearance was the critical attribute as evaluated by consumers. A panel of assessors measured the appearance of broccoli samples with different storage times using the quality scoring method (QSM). A month after having measured the real product the same assessors measured the appearance of digital photographs of the same samples using the QSM. Analysis of variance showed that there were no significant differences between evaluations of the real broccoli and the corresponding photograph.

► Appearance was the critical attribute of broccoli shelf life deterioration.
► The QSM method would very likely be an appropriate method to quantify broccoli changes.
► The digital photograph can be used to evaluate broccoli appearance.