Californian Schoolchildren’s Acceptance of and Preference for Pomegranate Compared to Two Lunch Fruit Standards

Specialty fruit crop species that are commonly served in school lunch programs include apples, citrus, and bananas. Among these three specialty crops, student food waste in primary and secondary schools in North America is enormous. In this postharvest sensory analysis study, schoolchildren were asked to rank and score for preference and acceptance of apples, oranges, and pomegranates. Minimally processed samples were used for each fruit type and the sensory analysis took place in classrooms in California, USA. ‘Red Delicious’ apple was generally less acceptable for multiple scored traits, and less preferred in consumer rankings, when compared with navel orange and ‘Wonderful’ pomegranate. Traits that were assessed by panelists included color, sweetness, tartness, texture, bitterness, and overall desirability. Both prepackaged arils and manually processed arils were used in the study and prepackaged arils were ranked lower when served alongside orange and apple compared with manually extracted, intact arils. Bitterness, color, tartness, and texture scores were significantly different among fruit types. This investigation indicates that Red Delicious is possibly a poor choice of apple cultivar for California schoolchildren and that pomegranate may be a possible alternative to apple, especially considering almost all apple cultivars develop brown flesh when cut. Whether pomegranate is feasible for school lunch programs remains to be seen; more research is needed to determine if pomegranate is a fruit that can be used to increase nutritive value and reduce food waste in public school nutrition programs.