APS Journal April 2017

pricot

Apricot jam color, as gauged by color

lightness (L*), is one of the most important

consumer selection criteria (Touati et al.,

2014). L* was the lightest for ‘Brookcot’

jam (Table 1). The panelists in the sensory

evaluation were also able to discern differ-

ences among the apricot jams and their com-

parisons for color (Table 2). Since apricot

fruits range in colors of yellow to orange

and red when ripe, chromaticity coordinates

of blue-yellow (b*) indicate that ‘Debbie’s

Gold’ was the yellowest apricot jam and sig-

nificantly yellower than MN206, ‘Westcott’,

the tart cherry and plum controls (Table 1).

In contrast to ‘Brookcot’, apricot jams made

from MN604, MN206 and MN203 were sig-

nificantly darker in color and were statisti-

cally similar to the tart cherry control. Such

darker-colored apricot jams, changing from

yellower to more reddish tones may be due

to the Maillard reaction whereby brown pig-

mentation is formed or enzymatic browning

occurs. The browning of jams has been ob-

served in previous studies of apricot (Touati

et al., 2014) and strawberry jams (Wicklund

et al., 2005; Patras et al., 2011).

The panelists in the sensory evaluation

were able to discern differences among the

apricot jams and comparisons for spread-

ability, texture, fruit pieces, flavor, off-flavor

Fig. 4.

Biplots from principal components analyses measured variables for the apricot jams and comparisons used

in the (A) chemical analysis for mean soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity (g/L citric acid equivalent) L*a*b*

color space or CIELAB (where L* indicateslightness; a* and b* are the chromaticity coordinates), hue angle

* = arctan(b*/a*) and chrome (C

* = sqt [a*

+b*

]) and (B) sensory evaluation panels for fruit pieces, flavor,

off-flavor, sweetness, color and overall quality (10-point scale); spreadability, texture and bitterness ratings on a

0 to 10 scale.

color

spread

texture

fruit.pieces

flavor

off.flavor

sweetness

bitterness

overall.quality

−4

−2

Dim1 (25.2%)

Dim2 (15.1%)

Groups

'Brookcot'

'Debbie's Gold'

'Sungold'

'Westcot'

apricot control

cherry control

MN202

MN203

MN206

MN604

plum control

Biplot of variables and individuals ratings PCA