Instrumental and sensory analysis of fresh Norwegian and

imported apples
Anna Maria Karlsen*, Kjersti Aaby, Hanne Sivertsen, Pernille Baardseth,
Marit Risberg Ellekjr
MATFORSKNorwegian Food Research Institute, Oslovn. 1, N-1430 A

s, Norway
Accepted 18 March 1999
Abstract
Sensory proling, instrumental texture measurements and volatile composition was used to characterise ten Norwegian and three
imported apple varieties. Principal component analysis of sensory data identied an odour/avour-factor and a texture factor along
the rst and second principal component, respectively. The main volatile components separating the apples were propyl acetate,
butyl acetate, 2-methylbutyl acetate, hexyl acetate, ethyl acetate, ethyl butanoate, 1-butanol, ethanol and a-farnesene. The rst four
mentioned volatiles were related to fruity and sweet sensory attributes, while the latter were related to sour, bitter and grassy
attributes. Sensory hardness, chewiness and mushiness correlated well with instrumentally measured force and work required for
penetration of the esh. Sensory odour- and avour attributes showed varying correlations by principal least squares regression to
volatile composition and texture-data separately. Sour, sweet and grassy avours were best explained when sensory odour- and
avour-attributes were correlated to texture-measurements and volatile composition-data at the same time. #1999 Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Eating quality and appearance of apples are impor-
tant for the consumer. These quality attributes can be
described by colour, texture, avour (volatile com-
pounds) and taste (sweet, sour, salt and bitter sensa-
tions) in addition to physical attributes such as size and
shape. All these attributes can be evaluated by using a
trained sensory panel, but more rapid and objective
characterisation is achieved by instrumental measure-
ments. Texture and avour appear to be the most
important attributes for the consumer (Stow, 1995).
A vocabulary for sensory proling of fresh apples is
reported by Williams and Carter (1977) and Watada,
Abbott, and Hardenburg (1980). Others have evaluated
single attributes such as rmness, juiciness or sweetness,
and correlated these to instrumental measurements
(Paoletti, Moneta, Bertone, & Sinesio, 1993; Plotto,
Azarenho, McDaniel, Crocke, & Mattheis, 1997;
Watada, Abbott, Hardenburg, & Lusby, 1981; Young,
Gilbert, Murray, & Ball, 1996).
Instrumentally measured rmness is often used as an
indicator of maturity and ripeness. Harker, Main-
donald, and Jackson, (1996) have investigated dierent
penetrometer techniques for measuring rmness in
apples. Penetrometer measurements are however
destructive tests and much eort is therefore made for
nding new nondestructive and reliable texture measur-
ing techniques (Abbott, 1994).
The volatile avour constituents of apples have been
studied for over 50 years and have been reviewed by
Dimick and Hoskin (1982). It is clear that apple aroma is
due to a complex mixture of volatile compounds that
include esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, hydrocarbons,
etc. Much eort is made to identify the most important
contributors to apple avour in dierent apple varieties.
The challenge is to separate the fewmost important avour
compounds, which might be trace chemicals, from the vast
amount of inactive compounds. Most of the recently pub-
lished papers are dealing with volatile composition due to
dierent storage conditions or rate of maturity of apples
(Boylston, Kupferman, Foss, & Buering, 1994; Brockho,
Skovgaard, Poll, & Hansen, 1993; Fallik, Archbold,
Hamilton-Kemp, Loughrin, & Collins, 1997; Girard &
Lau, 1995; Mattheis, Buchanan, & Fellman, 1995; Olias,
Sanz, Rios, & Perez, 1992).
0950-3293/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PI I : S0950- 3293( 99) 00030- 0
Food Quality and Preference 10 (1999) 305314
www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: anna.maria.karlsen@matforsk.no (A.M. Karlsen)
Instrumental and sensory evaluation of texture have
been correlated by Lurie and Nussinovitch (1996) and
Paoletti et al. (1993). Correspondingly Dimick and
Hoskin (1982), Watada et al. (1981) and Young et al.
(1996) have correlated sensory analysis and volatile
aroma compounds. From other applications it is shown
that texture inuences avour release (Carr et al., 1996).
So far there have however not been found any publica-
tions on correlation between sensory, texture and aroma
for fresh apples all together.
Sensory and instrumental measurements of the Nor-
wegian grown apple-varieties have not previously been
thoroughly reported. The three apple-varieties imported to
Norway have however been the subjects of several studies
published in literature (Bachmann, 1983; Brackmann,
1993; Cunningham, Acree, Barnard, Butts, & Braell,
1986; Dirinck & Schamp, 1989; Fallik et al., 1997; Girard
& Lau, 1995; Hansen, Poll, & Lewis, 1992; Lurie & Nus-
sinovitch, 1996; Paoletti et al., 1993; Watada, Abbott, &
Hardenburg, 1980; Watada, Abbott, Hardenburg, &
Lusby, 1981). The objective of this study is to correlate
sensory analysis to instrumental texture measurements
and volatile composition separately and together for
fresh Norwegian and imported apples.
2. Material and methods
2.1. Apples
Table 1 shows the varieties of apples (Malus domes-
tica) under test and their country of origin. The fruit
was supplied on 4 November 1997 and stored at +4

C
during the experiment 46 November). The apples were
tempered to room temperature prior to analysis. All the
fruit was obtained from the Norwegian Fruit and
Vegetables Marketing Board.
2.2. Sensory evaluation
The 13 dierent apple varieties were analysed by
conventional sensory proling using seven trained
panellists. Members were selected and trained according
to guidelines in ISO 6564:1985-E. The attributes for
proling chosen by the panel leader were odour inten-
sity, acidic odour, grassy odour, honey odour, fruity
odour (not apple), chemical odour, almond odour, a-
vour intensity, acidic avour, grassy avour, honey a-
vour, fruity avour (not apple), sour avour, sweet
avour, bitter avour, chemical avour, almond a-
vour, hardness, chewiness, crispiness, mushiness, juici-
ness and after taste. The panellists were trained in use of
denitions of sensory attributes and rating anchors by
pre-testing extreme samples. Denitions of the sensory
attributes are given in Table 2. Room-tempered and
washed half-apples were presented unpeeled with the cut
surface facing down on the plate.
A continuous non-structured scale was utilised for
evaluation. The left side of the scale corresponded to the
lowest intensity (value 1.0) and the right side corre-
sponded to the highest intensity (value 9.0). Each
panellist evaluated the samples in individual speed on a
computerised system for direct recording of data (CSA
Compusense Version 4.2, ON, Canada). Two replicates
were performed for each apple variety. Samples were
served in randomised order within each replicate and
with respect to each panellist. The mouth was rinsed
with mineral water between samples. The apples were
analysed under red light to mask dierences in colour.
2.3. Texture analysis
Texture was measured as the force (N), and work
(forcedistance, N mm), required to penetrate a convex
tip, 13 mm diameter, in the equator of peeled apples
using a TA-XT2 Texture Analyser (Stable Micro Sys-
tems Ltd., Surrey, UK). Two determinations on oppo-
site paired sides on each apple were carried out. Five
randomly chosen apples of each variety were deter-
mined. The speed of penetration was set at 4 mm s
1
,
and the test was stopped after penetration to 8 mm
depth. The force/deformation (F/D) curves were recor-
ded by computer and later analysed for maximum force
and work e.g. the area under the F/D curve (Texture
Expert for Windows version 1.15, Stable Micro Systems
Ltd., Surrey, UK) (Abbott, 1994).
2.4. Analysis of volatiles
Dynamic headspace sampling performed analyses of
volatiles from apples. Fresh unpeeled apples cut in pie-
ces (55 mm, 50 g) were kept in an erlenmeyerbottle
(500 ml) and closed airtight. After a period of 20 min in
room temperature, the sample was purged with nitrogen
Table 1
Apple varieties tested and their origin
Variety Origin
Yellow Gravenstein Norway
Red Gravenstein (size 6070 mm ) Norway
Red Gravenstein (size 8090 mm ) Norway
A

ker Norway
Aroma (``Telefrukt'') Norway
Aroma (``Hardanger frukt'') Norway
Aroma (size >80 mm ) Norway
Lobo Norway
Red Ingrid Marie Norway
Red Torstein Norway
Golden Delicious The Netherlands
Elstar France
Jonagold The Netherlands
306 A.M. Karlsen et al. / Food Quality and Preference 10 (1999) 305314
(50 ml/min) for 20 min. The volatiles liberated were
trapped on an adsorbent trap packed with 350 mg
Tenax GR (60-80 mesh, Alltech, Deereld, IL).
The volatile compounds were desorbed from the
adsorbent trap in an automatic thermal desorber injector
(ATD 400, PerkinElmer Ltd., Buckinghamshire, UK)
by passing helium gas (40 ml/min) for 5 min at 250

C.
Chromatographic analysis of the volatile compounds
was performed by using a HP 5890 Series II GC
equipped with a HP 5970 mass selective detector (Hew-
lett Packard Company, Avondale, PA). The compounds
were separated on a fused silica capillary column
(DBMS, 30 m0.25 id.1 mm lm, J&W Scientic Inc.,
Folsom, CA). The temperature programme was 40(3)
6140(0)10170(0)20220(10). The MS ion source was
maintained at 250

C throughout the analysis. Mass

spectra were acquired with ionisation energy of 70 eV
and within the mass range of m/z 29350. Identications
were made by comparing mass spectra of the compo-
nents with mass spectra in a reference library (Wiley
130 K Mass Spectral Database, John Wiley and Sons,
USA, 1986) and comparisons with retention times of
authentic standards for some compounds. Spectra were
recorded with HP G1034C MS ChemStation software,
version C.03.00 (Hewlett Packard Company, Avondale,
PA).
All apple varieties were analysed in triplicate.
Semi-quantitative amounts of volatiles were found by
correcting the peak intensities from the integrator against
the peak of the external standard, ethyl heptanoate (mg),
the weight of apple (g) and the total volume of purging
gas (L), giving the unit mg/(gL) (Hansen et al. 1992).
No calibrations were made for dierences in recovery of
dierent components or in detector responses.
2.5. Statistical analyses
A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was per-
formed in order to determine signicant dierences
between apple-varieties in sensory quality (Statistix 4.1,
Analytical Software, Tallahassee, FA). The model
included variety as a xed eect and panellist and vari-
ety * panellist as random eects. Signicant dierences
in amount of volatile compounds and instrumentally
measured rmness were evaluated by one-way ANOVA
(Minitab Release 11.21, Minitab Inc., State College,
PA). Possible signicant dierences between response
values were evaluated by Tukey's multiple comparisons
test with p=0.05.
Signicant sensory attributes and volatile compounds
identied by ANOVA were then individually analysed
(The Unscrambler 6.11, CAMO ASA, Trondheim,
Norway) by principal component analysis (PCA) of
average response values over replicates to study the
main variation among apples.
Partial Least Square (PLS) models were calculated
(The Unscrambler 6.11, CAMO ASA, Trondheim,
Norway) to describe correlation between sensory quality
and instrumental measurements of volatile compounds
and texture. Average response values over replicates
were used in data analysis. Results are presented as
explained validation variance.
Table 2
Denition of sensory attributes evaluated in conventional proling of dierent apple varieties
Attribute name Denition
Odour intensity Strength of all odours in the same sample
Acidic odour Associated with a fresh sour/sweet/fruity odour
Grassy odour Associated with odour of freshly cut green grass (hexanol)
Honey odour Odour of honey
Fruity odour (not apple) Odour of fruit (pear, banana, peach, apricot, pineapple (2-/3-methylbutanol))
Chemical odour Odour of chemicals (e.g. isobutanol)
Almond odour Odour of almond (benzaldehyde)
Flavour intensity Strength of all avours in the sample
Acidic avour Fresh sweet/sour avour
Grassy avour Flavour of freshly cut green grass
Honey avour Flavour of honey
Fruity avour (not apple) Flavour of fruit (pear, banana, peach, apricot, pineapple (2-/3-methylbutanol))
Sour avour One of basic tastes (e.g. citric acid)
Sweet avour One of basic tastes (e.g. sucrose)
Bitter avour One of basic tastes (e.g. caeine)
Chemical avour Flavour of chemicals, medicinal
Almond avour Flavour of almond (benzaldehyde)
Hardness Mechanical texture-attribute related to force required to bite trough the material
Chewiness Force and time needed to grind the sample prior to swallowing
Crispiness Degree of brittleness/toughness during chewing, mouthfeel after 34 bites
Mushiness Soft and pulpy
Juiciness Amount of liquid released on mastication (after 45 bites), mouthfeel
After taste Taste in the mouth 1.5 min after swallowing the sample
A.M. Karlsen et al. / Food Quality and Preference 10 (1999) 305314 307
GC-data and instrumental texture-data were standar-
dised (each variable divided with its standard deviation)
prior to PCA and PLS with the exception of a pre-
liminary PCA of GC-data which was carried out on
unstandardised data.
Validity of factors obtained from both PCA and PLS
was conrmed by full cross-validation.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Sensory evaluation
ANOVA of the sensory data (with the apple varieties
and panellists as class variables) revealed that 16 of 23
sensory attributes showed signicant dierences
between the apple-samples. Mean values for each of the
signicant attributes for dierent apple varieties com-
bined with Tukey's multiple comparisons test (p=0.05)
are given in Table 3.
A

ker, Golden Delicious and Elstar were char-

acterised by the attribute honey, sweet and fruity a-
vours and they were not too hard. This is in agreement
with Watada, Abbott, and Hardenburg (1980) who
described Golden Delicious as a sweet and fruity apple-
variety. Yellow Gravenstein, Red Ingrid Marie and Red
Torstein were characterised by the attributes grassy,
sour and bitter avours, and the two latter were very
hard. Lobo was very mushy and had little avour.
Jonagold was crisp and hard, and had high intensity of
after taste. Aroma and Red Gravenstein were neutral in
avour. These main characterisations of the apples are
summarised in Table 4.
A PCA showed that the rst two principal compo-
nents (PC) described 84% of total variation in the sen-
sory data. Scores and loadings are given in Fig. 1. PC 1
described 66% of variation among samples whereas
PC2 described 18% of variation. Fruity, sweet and
honey odours and avours versus sour, grassy and bit-
ter odours and avours, i.e. a avour/odour-factor,
mainly described the variation among samples at the
rst PC. A

ker, Golden Delicious and Elstar were the

most sweet and fruity apples. Red Ingrid Marie, Red
Torstein, Jonagold and the Gravenstein apples were
most bitter, grassy and sour.
The second PC could be interpreted as a texture fac-
tor. Along this factor Jonagold, Red Ingrid Marie and
Red Torstein were hardest and most chewy whereas
Lobo was most mushy.
3.2. Texture analysis
ANOVA of the penetration data with the dierent
force- and work measurements for each apple variety
revealed that Red Ingrid Marie, Red Torstein and Jona-
gold were signicantly harder than the rest of the varieties.
Elstar was the softest apple. This is in agreement with the
results from the sensory proling (Table 4). Force- and
work-data for each of the varieties are given in Table 5.
3.2.1. Correlation of sensory and texture analysis
A PLS2 was performed on the force and work data
with regard to the sensory texture attributes hardness,
crispiness, chewiness and mushiness. The regression
revealed that 100% of the texture measurements
explained 81% of the variance in four sensory texture
attributes using only one factor (not shown). Percent
explained validation variance using one factor was
90.8% for hardness. This is in accordance with Paoletti
et al. (1993) who reported a univariate correlation
between penetrometer measured rmness and sensory
rmness with correlation coecient R=0.907.
The PLS2-model also revealed that 82.3% of varia-
tion in sensory chewiness and 74.2% of variation in
sensory mushiness using one factor was explained by the
instrumental texture-data. Sensory crispiness however
was to a lesser extent related to the texture-data pro-
duced by penetration of the esh. This method resulted
in 51.4% explanation of the variance in crispiness. By
contrast Lurie and Nussinovitch (1996) found that
rmness measured by Magness Taylor penetrometer
tests correlated with sensory crispiness for Golden
Delicious with R=0.852.
The sensory attribute juiciness did not correlate to
instrumental texture measurements.
3.3. Analysis of volatiles
The volatile composition of various apple varieties
can dier markedly (Dirinck & Schamp, 1989). Our
GC-runs resulted in chromatograms with more than 80
peaks. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed sig-
nicant dierences between apple varieties in 68 of these
components. To identify the volatile compounds which
separated the apple varieties in this study, a preliminary
PCA (not shown) was carried out on unstandardised
data using the 68 signicant variables. In this model the
rst three PCs described 91% of the variation in volatile
compounds. The components with the highest loading
along the rst and second PC (55 and 28% of variation,
respectively) were selected for building a new PCA-
model. These volatile compounds were: ethanol, ethyl
acetate, 1-butanol, propyl acetate, ethyl butanoate,
butyl acetate, 2-methylbutyl acetate, hexyl acetate and
a-farnesene. A sensory description of the volatile com-
pounds given in literature is listed in Table 6.
Hexyl-, butyl-, propyl- and 2-methylbutyl acetate are
all characterised by fruity/sweet and pungent avour,
while ethyl acetate, ethanol, ethyl butanoate and 1-
butanol are characterised as pineapple and burning
taste. a-Farnesene has a more greenish avour. Hexyl-
and butyl acetate have been reported to be the main
308 A.M. Karlsen et al. / Food Quality and Preference 10 (1999) 305314
Table 3
Mean values for 16 signicant sensory attributes
a
Apple variety Odour
intensity
Grassy
odour
Honey
odour
Fruity
odour
Grassy
avour
Honey
avour
Fruity
avour
Sour
avour
Sweet
avour
Bitter
avour
Hardness Chewiness Crispiness Mushiness Juiciness After
taste
Yellow Gravenstein 5.54ab 3.51a 1.55ab 1.94c 3.44abc 1.39bc 1.91c 4.84a 3.09e 4.10ab 4.77bcd 5.04abcd 5.90ab 2.45abcd 6.46ab 4.51a
Red Gravenstein
(size 6070 mm )
5.79ab 2.91abc 1.84ab 2.54bc 2.88bcdef 1.61abc 2.25c 4.28ab 3.58cde 3.49abcd 4.35d 4.68cd 5.63ab 2.47abcd 6.23ab 4.06ab
Red Gravenstein
(size 8090 mm )
5.38b 2.95abc 1.44b 1.97c 3.21abcde 1.62abc 2.32c 4.00abc 3.94bcde 3.46abcd 4.66cd 5.04abcd 5.89ab 2.48abcd 6.89a 4.36ab
A

ker 6.43a 2.44bc 2.39a 4.19a 2.46ef 2.25ab 3.98ab 3.64abc 4.46abc 3.28bcd 4.80bcd 5.04abcd 5.51ab 2.76ab 5.89b 4.11ab
Aroma
(``Telefrukt'')
6.30ab 2.37bc 1.72ab 2.56bc 2.71cdef 1.96abc 2.55bc 4.06abc 4.39abcd 3.59abcd 4.91abcd 5.15abcd 5.95ab 2.05bcde 6.51ab 4.17ab
Aroma
(``Hardanger frukt'')
6.49a 2.65abc 2.21ab 3.19abc 2.67cdef 2.15abc 3.30abc 3.66abc 4.69ab 3.49abcd 4.34d 4.47cd 5.81ab 2.51abcd 6.62ab 4.10ab
Aroma
(size >80 mm )
6.32ab 2.56bc 1.64ab 2.83abc 2.58def 1.76abc 3.29abc 3.64abc 4.73ab 3.23bcd 4.39d 4.64cd 5.68ab 2.75ab 5.97b 4.26ab
Lobo 5.94ab 3.04abc 1.63ab 2.65bc 2.86bcdef 1.61abc 2.37c 3.24bc 4.76ab 3.65abcd 4.08d 4.61cd 5.11b 3.19a 5.96b 4.03ab
Red Ingrid Marie 5.81ab 3.18ab 1.66ab 2.56bc 3.98a 1.44bc 2.31c 4.94a 3.79bcde 4.05ab 5.96a 6.10a 6.07a 1.49de 6.31ab 4.56a
Red Torstein 6.05ab 3.13abc 1.55ab 2.21c 3.68ab 1.36c 2.42c 4.87a 3.36de 4.36a 5.83ab 5.89ab 6.29a 1.69cde 6.07ab 4.40ab
Golden Delicious 6.54a 2.63abc 2.33a 4.02ab 2.37ef 2.43a 4.14a 2.82c 5.40a 2.99cd 4.46d 4.91bcd 5.70ab 2.36abcd 6.71ab 3.94ab
Elstar 6.35ab 2.23c 2.30ab 4.21a 2.15f 2.34a 4.37a 3.15bc 5.39a 2.71d 4.18d 4.21d 5.46ab 2.56abc 6.21ab 3.55b
Jonagold 6.06ab 3.04abc 1.94ab 2.99abc 3.41abcd 1.88abc 2.97abc 4.09abc 4.69ab 3.74abc 5.68abc 5.52abc 6.15a 1.34e 6.54ab 4.69a
a
Tukey's multiple comparisons test, p 0:05.
A
.
M
.
K
a
r
l
s
e
n
e
t
a
l
.
/
F
o
o
d
Q
u
a
l
i
t
y
a
n
d
P
r
e
f
e
r
e
n
c
e
1
0
(
1
9
9
9
)
3
0
5

3
1
4
3
0
9
volatile compounds in dierent apple-varieties (Boylston
et al., 1993; Brackmann et al., 1993; Brockho et al.,
1993; Fallik et al., 1997; Girard & Lau, 1995; Hansen et
al., 1992; Mattheis et al., 1995; Olias et al., 1992). Hexyl-,
butyl- and 2-methylbutyl acetate and 1-butanol have
been reported to be the main contributors to aroma and
avour in Royal Gala apples when evaluated by odour-
port technique (Young et al. 1996). The volatile com-
pounds selected by using PCA in our experiment
seemed to verify earlier ndings.
Table 4
Main characterisations of each apple variety
Variety Main characterisation
Yellow Gravenstein High intensity of grassy odour, sour avour and after taste. Low intensity of fruity odour and avour,
honey and sweet avours.
Red Gravenstein
(size 6070 mm )
Low intensity of fruity avours. Neither hard nor chewy.
Red Gravenstein
(size 8090 mm )
Very juicy. Low intensity of fruity odour and avour.
A

ker High odour intensity, honey and fruity odours, and low intensity of grassy avour. Less hard
Aroma
(``Telefrukt'')
No specic characterisation.
Aroma
(``Hardanger frukt'')
Not hard nor chewy.
Aroma
(size >80 mm )
High odour intensity. Less hard, chewy and juicy.
Lobo Very mushy. Low intensity of fruity and sour avours. Less hard, crisp, juicy and chewy.
Red Ingrid Marie High intensity of grassy and sour avours and after taste. Low intensity of honey and fruity avours.
Very hard, chewy and crisp.
Red Torstein High intensity of sour and bitter avours, and low intensity of fruity odour and avour, honey and sweet
avours. Very hard, chewy and crisp.
Golden Delicious High odour intensity, honey odour and avour, fruity and sweet avours. Low intensity of grassy odour,
sour and bitter avours. Less hard.
Elstar High intensity of fruity odour and avour, honey and sweet avours. Low intensity of grassy odour and
avour, sour and bitter avours. Less hard and juicy.
Jonagold High intensity of after taste. Very hard, crisp and least mushy.
Table 5
Texture measured by force and work required for penetration of the
fruit
a
Apple variety Force (N) Work (N mm)
Yellow Gravenstein 53.2bcd 553.5bcde
Red Gravenstein (size 6070 mm ) 60.6b 647.1bc
Red Gravenstein (size 8090 mm ) 54.6bc 553.4bcde
A

ker 61.0b 658.4b

Aroma (``Telefrukt'') 57.0bc 581.7bcd
Aroma (``Hardanger frukt'') 51.9bcde 532.0cde
Aroma (size >80 mm ) 48.1cde 486.5de
Lobo 43.5de 440.6e
Red Ingrid Marie 91.1a 943.3a
Red Torstein 86.9a 927.7a
Golden Delicious 54.2bcd 599.5bcd
Elstar 41.9e 441.9e
Jonagold 84.6a 886.9a
a
Tukey's multiple comparisons test, p=0.05.
Fig. 1. Principal component analysis (PCA) of sensory data for 13
apple varieties. Scores and loadings for principal components (PC) 1
(66%) and 2 (18%).
310 A.M. Karlsen et al. / Food Quality and Preference 10 (1999) 305314
The concentrations and retention times of the nine
selected volatile compounds in each of the apple vari-
eties are given in Table 7.
The new PCA was performed on standardised data of
the nine volatile compounds to classify the apple vari-
eties in this study. This PCA revealed that the rst three
PCs described 86% of the variation. The rst two PCs
(69% of variation) are shown in Fig. 2. According to
the loading plot, PC1 (32%) separated the propyl-
butyl-, 2-methylbutyl- and hexyl acetate esters from the
rest of the volatiles. These compounds are characterised
as fruity and sweet versus green, bitter and burning (Table
6). Along the second PC (37%) a-farnesene was sepa-
rated from ethyl acetate, ethanol and ethyl butanoate.
These compounds are characterised as green versus pine-
apple (Table 6). The score plot shows that PC1 separated
the Gravenstein-apples from Jonagold and Golden
Delicious, whereas PC2 separated Yellow Gravenstein,
Red Ingrid Marie and Lobo from Aroma (``Telefrukt'')
and Aroma (size >80 mm ). Jonagold and Golden
Delicious have high concentrations of the acetate esters
(fruity and sweet) except ethyl acetate. Aroma (``Tele-
frukt'') and Aroma (size >80 mm ) have high levels of
ethanol, ethyl acetate, ethyl butanoate and 1-butanol
(pineapple and burning taste). Gravenstein-apples are
characterised by high concentrations of a-farnesene
(greenish). These characterisations of the apples resem-
ble the sensory analysis described in Table 3 and 4.
Similar classications are obtained for 25 apple-vari-
eties in Belgium (Dirinck & Schamp, 1989). They
found that Golden Delicious, Jonagold and Elstar had
high concentrations of hexyl- and butyl acetate, while
Table 7
Concentration (mg/gL) and retention times of volatile compounds in dierent apple varieties
a,b
Ethanol Ethyl
acetate
1-Butanol Propyl
acetate
Ethyl
butanoate
Butyl
acetate
2-Methylbutyl
acetate
Hexyl
acetate
a-Farnesene
Retention time (min) 2.78 5.47 6.93 8.51 11.54 12.03 14.22 18.56 28.45
Apple variety
Yellow Gravenstein 3c 2c 54cde nd 26cde 2f nd 5e 64bc
Red Gravenstein (size 6070 mm ) 30bc 15bc 84ab nd 121b 2f nd 3e 70b
Red Gravenstein (size 8090 mm ) 14c 6c 99a nd 59cd 3f nd 4e 109a
A

ker 8c 5c 38ef 12cd nd 257ab 72c 69d 60bc

Aroma (``Telefrukt'') 86a 172a 82abc 13c 214a 184bcd 51d 172bc 45bc
Aroma (``Hardanger frukt'') 12c 17bc 47de 5cd 66bc 169bcd 17e 181b 41c
Aroma (size >80 mm ) 53b 83b 87ab 6cd 194a 148cde 26e 187b 46bc
Lobo 7c 3c 15f 3d 8de 74ef 21e 114cd 49bc
Red Ingrid Marie 3c 1c 10f 4cd 1e 122de 20e 88d 51bc
Red Torstein 21c 18bc 38ef 6cd 28cde 234abc 56cd 62de 49bc
Golden Delicious 6c 7c 51de 56a nd 312a 90b 218b 63bc
Elstar 5c 5c 27ef 9cd nd 227abc 18e 188b 49bc
Jonagold 11c 5c 69bcd 25b nd 290a 109a 310a 49bc
a
Tukey's multiple comparisons test, p 0:05.
b
nd, not detected.
Table 6
Sensory description of the selected volatile compounds
Compound Description Ref.
Ethanol Burning taste Budavari, O'Neil, Smith, and Heckelman (1989)
Ethyl acetate Characteristic ether-like odour reminiscent of pineapple
with a bittersweet, wine-like burning taste
Furia and Bellanca (1971)
1-Butanol Dry, burning taste Furia and Bellanca
Propyl acetate Pungent and penetrating odour Furia and Bellanca
Ethyl butanoate Fruity odour with pineapple undernote and sweet,
analogous taste
Furia and Bellanca
Butyl acetate Strong fruity odour; burning and then sweet taste reminiscent
of pineapple
Furia and Bellanca
2-Methylbutyl acetate Powerful, fruity odour with a bittersweet taste reminiscent of pear;
if impure the odour is strong, penetrating, and almost shocking
Furia and Bellanca
Hexyl acetate Pleasant fruity odour and bittersweet taste suggestive of pear Furia and Bellanca
a-Farnesene Green, herbaceous Mookherjee et al. (1984)
A.M. Karlsen et al. / Food Quality and Preference 10 (1999) 305314 311
Boshoop and Nico had high concentrations of a-farne-
sene and ethyl butanoate. The results of odour-analysis
of 40 apple-varieties reported by Cunningham et al.
(1986), reveals that odour in apples is not caused by the
same compounds in all varieties.
3.3.1. Correlation of sensory analysis to volatile
composition
A PLS2-model (not shown) was performed on the
nine volatile compounds with regard to the sensory
odour- and avour-attributes, odour intensity, grassy
odour, honey odour, fruity odour, grassy avour, honey
avour, fruity avour, sour avour, sweet avour, bitter
avour and after taste. In this model however, 14% of
variance in volatile compounds explained only 13% of
variance in sensory data using one factor.
3.4. Correlation of sensory analysis to instrumental
texture measurements and volatile composition
Therefore a PLS2 was performed on both instrumen-
tally measured texture force and work and nine volatile
compounds with regard to sensory odour- and avour-
attributes. Hereby 48% of variance in X (texture and
volatiles) accounts for 52% of variation in Y (sensory)
using three factors. Scores and loadings for the rst two
factors are shown in Fig. 3. The score-plot gives an
almost identical clustering of the apples as shown by the
PCA of sensory data (Fig. 1). Red and yellow Graven-
steins are grouped on the opposite side than Golden
Delicious along factor 1. Red Ingrid Marie and Red
Torstein are close together vis-a -vis the Gravensteins
along factor 2. Jonagold is placed by itself between
Golden Delicious, Red Torstein and Ingrid Marie.
The loading-plot (Fig. 3) reveals that propyl-, butyl-
and hexyl acetate and possibly 2-methylbutyl acetate
seems to be related to fruity odour and avour and
sweet avour. The rest of the volatile compounds tend
to be related to sour avour, bitter avour, grassy a-
vour and odour and after taste. These ndings are in
agreement with the sensory description of the com-
pounds given in Table 6. High force and work required
to penetrate the apple esh also seems to correlate
positively to the sour and grassy avours and negatively
to the fruity and sweet odour and avour for the apple
varieties in this study.
Percent variance explained by the rst three fac-
tors for individual sensory attributes in this PLS2-model
are listed in Table 8. For comparison the results from
the correlation of sensory data to only volatile com-
pounds are given. A PLS2 on only instrumentally mea-
sured texture-data with regard to sensory odour- and
Fig. 3. Correlation of sensory analysis to instrumental texture mea-
surements and volatile composition (PLS2) for 13 apple-varieties.
Scores and loadings for factor 1 and 2.
Fig. 2. Principal component analysis (PCA) of volatile composition
data for 13 apple-varieties. Scores and loadings for principal compo-
nents (PC) 1 (32%) and 2 (37%).
312 A.M. Karlsen et al. / Food Quality and Preference 10 (1999) 305314
avour-attributes have also been carried out (not
shown). By this model 100% of variation in texture
explained 22% of variation in sensory odour- and a-
vour data using two factors. Explained variance for
individual sensory attributes to texture are listed in
Table 8 as well.
The results reveal that the highest correlations are
obtained when sensory odour- and avour-attributes
are correlated to texture-measurements and volatile
composition data at the same time. Hereby variations in
sour, sweet and grassy avours are more than 60%
explained using three factors.
The better results with this PLS-model might imply
that the texture inuences the sensory perception of
certain odour- and avour-attributes. Flavour release in
model systems of fruit avoured gels have been reported
by Carr et al. (1996). They observed a decrease in a-
vour perception with increase in gel strength. Dier-
ences in avour release from fresh apples due to
dierent cellular structure, water-content, etc., would
therefore be expected. Histological studies could be
performed to understand this relationship between tex-
ture and avour release.
Although texture and avour prole are maintained to
be the most important attributes for the consumer, even
better prediction of all the sensory attributes would be
expected if a larger number of instrumental and/or chemical
measurements were taken into account. Plotto, Azarenho,
McDaniel, Crockett, and Mattheis (1997) did not nd
signicant correlations of titratable acidity (TA) with
sensory sweetness ratings nor with solid solids con-
centrations (SSC): TA ratios, but the information by
SSC and TA might give valuable contributions in com-
bination with for example texture and volatile compo-
sition data.
The volatile compounds liberated are also strongly
aected by the handling of the samples. In this study the
apples have been cut in pieces prior to sampling. This
disintegration of the cells has most certainly lead to
enzymatic degradation, hydrolysis, oxidation and rear-
rangements of avour-compounds and precursors
(Acree & McLellan, 1989; Berger, 1991). The sampling
technique should be the subject of further studies to
develop new methods, which would be able to give an
even better prediction of perceived aroma.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Norwegian Fruit
and Vegetables Marketing Board for oering the apples
and Foundation ``Godt Norsk'' for allowing us to pub-
lish the sensory data. The skilful technical assistance of
Laura Blu mlein and Torine Srensen are highly appre-
ciated. Thanks also to Grete Skrede for valuable dis-
cussions.
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