Evaluation of hedonic scores and R-indices for visual, flavour and texturepreferences of apple cultivars by British Columbian and Nova Scotian consumers

Apple preferences were examined for regional, cultivar and order-of present ation effects. Seven apple cultivars, four (Honeycrisp, Fiesta, Cortland an d Sinta) grown in Nova Scotia (NS) and three (Creston, Silken and Gala) gro wn in British Columbia (BC) were evaluated for visual, flavour and texture preferences using a nine-point hedonic scale. In both locations, 126 consum ers evaluated all seven cultivars for their visual preferences and four of the seven cultivars for their flavour and texture preferences, using an inc omplete-block design balanced for presentation order and carry-over effects . On average, the flavour and texture scores of NS consumers were higher th an those of BC consumers. Regional differences were most pronounced for vis ual preferences, with BC consumers preferring Gala and Creston (BC-grown cu ltivars) and NS consumers preferring Fiesta and Cortland (NS-grown cultivar s). Despite these differences, three of the four top-rated cultivars were i dentical (Gala, Fiesta and Cortland). Flavour preferences were the most sim ilar, with Gala, Silken, Creston and Cortland being preferred by both NS an d BC consumers. Regional differences for texture preferences were less pron ounced than those for visual preferences, with Creston preferred by both gr oups. The BC consumers preferred the texture of Silken and Creston, while t he NS consumers preferred the texture of Creston, Honeycrisp, Cortland and Gala. Results from the nine-point hedonic scale were correlated with result s from the four-point R-index settle. Correlations were highest when discri mination among the cultivars was greatest. Both methodologies effectively q uantified consumer preferences, with hedonic scores expressing results in r elative terms and the R-index expressing results as probabilities.