2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an important fruit in many cultures. The fruit and juice have risen in popularity as it was discovered that pomegranate has relatively high antioxidant activity compared to most other fruits. In this study, six cultivars were utilized to determine consumer acceptance compared to the industry standard, ‘Wonderful’, which comprises 90-95% of commercial production in the USA. Fruit were sourced from two cultivar field trials, one in inland Riverside, CA and one in coastal Ventura County, CA. Cultivars selected for the study included ‘Eversweet’, ‘Green Globe’, ‘Haku Botan’, ‘Loffani’, ‘Phoenicia’, ‘Wonderful’, and ‘cv. 857’, an heirloom cultivar from Ventura County, CA USA. Pomegranate arils were subject to sensory evaluation by 87 untrained consumer panelists in late 2016. Panelists were given pomegranate arils and asked to score the samples using a 9-point Hedonic scale for the following fruit quality traits: aril color, sweetness, tartness, seed hardness, bitterness and overall desirability. There were significant differences among cultivars for all traits assessed by the sensory panelists. There were differences in acceptance among consumers for ‘Wonderful’ depending on if it was grown on the coast versus inland, and consumers preferred inland- versus coastal-grown ‘Wonderful’. ‘Wonderful’ pomegranate was associated with cultivars that consumers scored low on desirability for bitterness. Cultivars that scored well in overall desirability versus ‘Wonderful’ were ‘cv. 857’, ‘Eversweet’, ‘Green Globe’, and ‘Phoenicia’.