Quality Attributes of Strawberry Cultivars Grown in British Columbia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Strawberries from six cultivars, ‘Mrak’, ‘Ranier’, ‘Redcrest’, ‘Selva’, ‘Sumas’ and ‘Totem’, were compared for sensory attributes, chemical properties and 25 selected volatile compounds.‘Redcrest’ strawberries had the most intense sourness, lowest pH, high titratable acidity and least overall fruit quality rating. Two‐dimensional partitioning (TOP) revealed that overall quality ratings of the strawberries from all cultivars were dependent primarily on odor and sweetness. Cultivars differed in all orthogonal variates except odor. While judges could not detect odor differences, volatiles were greatest in ‘Mrak’ and ‘Selva’ and least in ‘Ranier’ and ‘Redcrest’. Canonical variate analysis (CVA) based on 25 selected volatile compounds was used to classify cultivars according to the region in which they were bred.