SENSORY EVALUATION OF PRINCIPAL PEAR CULTIVARS FROM NORTH PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA

Even though Argentina is recognized in the international market for the quality of its emblematic cultivar ‘Bartlett’, other cultivars, commercially well ranked, are grown in the northern Patagonia area whose sensory quality has never been characterized in this region. Descriptive sensory analysis (DSA), a well reported technique used to characterize fruit cultivars, was selected to describe five traditional cultivars: ‘Beurre d’Anjou’, ‘Packham’s Triumph’, ‘Bartlett’, ‘Abate Fetel’ and ‘Conference’. With this purpose, eleven assessors were trained for a period of three months in order to develop a vocabulary and standards to be used for evaluation. Eighteen sensory attributes were selected to describe flavor, aroma and texture of the pears. According to statistical analysis based on Principal Components Analysis (PCA), all cultivars were clearly separated based on sensory properties. The first two axes explained 70% of the total variance when all the parameters were included. This percentage increased when grouping the variables by taste, aroma and texture attributes.