Sensory evaluation of organic, processed vegetables

Summary

In the project “Organic food and health – a multigeneration animal experiment” that was carried out from 2001-2004 as a part of the Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming II programme, focus was on the health beneficial effect of vegetable food as affected by different cultivation systems, including organic and conventional cultivation systems. Vegetable based feed compositions produced from vegetables that were harvested from the different cultivation systems were tested in animal experiments in which the health status of rats was evaluated.
In order to evaluate the food quality of vegetables as affected by the cultivation system, a sensory analysis was carried out on selected vegetables (carrot, pea and kale) that were cultivated in three different systems (organic, semi-organic and conventional systems) in two years. After harvest the vegetables were processed after normal practice by blanching and freezing and stored at –24 °C until analysis. Sensory attributes that describe the sensory quality of the products with respect to taste, flavour and colour were chosen and evaluated by a trained sensory panel for the selected vegetables. Data from the sensory evaluation of the different vegetables will be presented.