Identifying flavour targets for fruit breeding: A kiwifruit example

The current study illustrates that fruit breeding should not only target elite fruit that are significantly more liked than existing cultivars, but also target special unique fruit that create major new flavour niches. Breeding targets can be identified in terms of consumer preferences for new and defined flavours. A trained panel was used to assess the flavours of a wide range of kiwifruit, and these characteristics were systematically arranged into flavour and odour wheels. These wheels describe some of the diversity found within the kiwifruit germplasm. Next, consumers from Japan and New Zealand rated their overall liking of fruit from each of 10 genotypes. Consumer preference mapping was used to explore the relationships between consumer liking and flavour. Cluster analysis was used to explore the diverse responses consumers may have to the same fruit. Individual consumers varied in their preferences, but there was a marked split associated with preference or rejection of fruit from the new cultivar ‘Hort16A’ and associated A. chinensis genotypes. These preferences were related to consumer responses to ‘sweetness’, ‘honest cooked sugar’ and ‘blackcurrant’ flavours that were predominantly associated with A. chinensis genotypes, and absent in previous commercial kiwifruit cultivars. The first significant export of ‘Hort16A’ fruit occurred in 1998. Thus, we have discussed these results from consumer studies on kiwifruit genotypes in relation to the subsequent market success of ‘Hort16A’.