Sugars and sweetness in buttercup squash

Sweetness is an important attribute in the flavour, acceptability, and perc eived quality of winter squash. Glucose, fructose and sucrose contributed d ifferently to the perceived sweetness of eight winter squash cultivars (Cuc urbita maxima) rated by a trained sensory panel. Sucrose was the most impor tant sugar in predicting sweetness, but better predictions were obtained us ing additional combinations of glucose and fructose content. Sugar content and relative proportions of glucose, fructose and sucrose changed during st orage. Starch content decreased for all cultivars during storage, and was a n important predictor of sweetness for high starch cultivars only. When dat a for sweetness were regressed against sugar concentrations, adjusted R-2 V alues in the range of 0.68-0.89 were obtained for seven of the cultivars. I ncluding starch in the regression models unproved the adjusted R-2 values t o 0.77-0.94. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.