В Нидерландах открыт Центр вкусовых открытий для объективного анализа качества свежих продуктов

Taste is a major topic in the fresh produce sector in the Netherlands. Growers, breeders, and parties further down the supply chain discuss it extensively. Taste panels exist, and Brix measurements are carried out on fruit. Yet much of the rapid progress being made in objective taste measurement is passing many fresh produce companies by. That gap prompted Hans van Doorn, Johan Kos and Bert van Tol to establish the Taste Discovery Centre. Drawing on their combined experience in quality analysis, cultivation, breeding and the sensory properties of fresh produce products, the three men support companies that want to invest in taste and product quality. Bert, Hans and Johan combine practical knowledge of cultivation and breeding with advanced techniques for measuring taste and interpreting the results. Taste 'forgotten' The idea for the Taste Discovery Centre grew out of practical experience. In a project aimed at feeding large populations in developing countries, breeders worked intensively to develop highly resistant, productive varieties. Once the varieties were ready, something stood out: the taste wasn't good. Taste, it turned out, had been "forgotten" during variety development. Hans, who has years of experience in taste research and breeding, was asked to join the project. As he shared his expertise, he realized that knowledge of taste and breeding could be valuable in many other areas as well. "There's still a lot of ground to gain when it comes to measuring taste," he says. What is a good taste? The Taste Discovery Centre naturally works with breeding companies, but also explicitly targets growers and other players in the fresh produce processing industry. Tomatoes are a crop where taste has traditionally received close attention, but sound taste research is equally important in open-field crops such as carrots, or in developing salad mixes for supermarket shelves. "If you replace lettuce with cabbage in a salad mix, for instance, you don't want too strong a cabbage flavor," says Johan, citing a current example from practice. Anyone who assumes it's always about achieving "the best possible taste" would be mistaken. Sometimes a neutral taste is exactly what's wanted, for example, when potatoes are processed into other products. "The first step is often ensuring consistent quality and taste," says Bert. That's not simple, Hans notes, since taste is a trait with relatively low heritability in breeding. In other words, taste can be lost more easily than other traits during the breeding process used to develop new varieties. Hans observes that many companies focus on achieving "an average good taste for the average consumer." "But that ultimately doesn't make anyone particularly happy," he says. The Taste Discovery Centre can help companies segment existing consumer groups with distinct taste preferences, allowing them to map and serve those preferences more precisely. That knowledge, in turn, supports the development of better, more targeted varieties. © Thijmen Tiersma | FreshPlaza.comBert van Tol, Hans van Doorn and Johan Kos, the founders of the Taste Discovery Centre Using the most modern techniques The Taste Discovery Centre helps companies across the fresh produce supply chain analyze, develop and improve the sensory and quality characteristics of their products. Bert, Hans and Johan bring expertise in laboratory analysis for sensory evaluation, as well as technical and practical knowledge of breeding and cultivation. The founders see wide variation in how companies approach taste, and in how they use the techniques already available to them. Many agricultural businesses have yet to adopt the most advanced or effective tools on the market, the taste experts note, even though such tools could speed up improvements in the sensory and quality characteristics of fresh produce products. "Objectively establishing and measuring taste well is challenging and requires real expertise," Hans says. "In practice, I often see taste profiling with panels and measurements being simplified. Aroma characteristics, for example, often go unmeasured, even though they matter a great deal to roughly half of consumers." For measurement techniques, Hans looks explicitly beyond agriculture, toward the medical field, for instance. Techniques first introduced there are now finding their way into agricultural applications. The same is true of technology originating in the food processing industry. From DNA knowledge to taste insight The founders also see a growing role for advanced software. "You need it to properly analyze the data you collect," Hans explains. Analyses are increasingly multivariate, industry jargon for methods that examine hundreds of characteristics simultaneously. A taste panel and a Brix measurement alone are no longer enough. "We want to help companies objectively quantify taste across all the relevant characteristics," Johan says. The Taste Discovery Centre's founders are convinced that only by capturing taste objectively can breeders and growers truly breed or cultivate for taste. Taste and texture are shaped by complex interactions between plant compounds and cell structures. By measuring these properties objectively and linking them to sensory assessments from experts and consumer panels, companies can build a strong foundation for product development and quality improvement. Once objective taste profiles have been established through taste tests and crop measurements, taste traits can then be bred for with the support of DNA technology. Ultimately, in all fresh produce crops, taste characteristics are linked to—and predictable from- a crop's DNA composition. For more information: Taste Discovery Centre [email protected] www.tastediscoverycentre.nl