Panel Results.
Tomato fruit are “climacteric” meaning that they are picked before they are fully ripe and become softer, sweeter and change color on their way to you. We wanted to find out if tomato enthusiasts could detect the difference between tomatoes that were picked green and allowed to ripen on the counter versus tomatoes that were allowed to ripen on the vine and picked red.
Participants were offered three ripe tomato samples - two the same and one different - and asked to identify the odd one out. Our sensory panel indicated that participants could NOT reliably detect the difference between these treatments as they selected "the odd one out" in just 41% of cases, only slightly higher than if they were selected randomly (33%).
Flavor preferences can be very subjective - and flavor quality is in the eye of the beholder - so participants were likely relying on a diversity of reasons to make their selections. What factors do you think are more important? What would you like to learn more about?
Thank you so much to all of our participants and to the Dover Farmers' Market for hosting this very fun event!
Participants were offered three ripe tomato samples - two the same and one different - and asked to identify the odd one out. Our sensory panel indicated that participants could NOT reliably detect the difference between these treatments as they selected "the odd one out" in just 41% of cases, only slightly higher than if they were selected randomly (33%).
Flavor preferences can be very subjective - and flavor quality is in the eye of the beholder - so participants were likely relying on a diversity of reasons to make their selections. What factors do you think are more important? What would you like to learn more about?
Thank you so much to all of our participants and to the Dover Farmers' Market for hosting this very fun event!