Using Preliminary Consumer Insight to Enhance the Perceived Quality of a New Apple Cultivar ( <i>Malus domestica</i> Borkh. Cv. ANABP 01) with a View to Maximizing Crop Utilisation

The visual appearance of a new apple cultivar is of foremost importance for consumer attraction and fruit purchase. A new Australian apple (“ANABP 01”) has a unique burgundy colored skin which can range from red to dark burgundy during fruit maturation. This study investigates consumer likability and purchase of “ANABP 01” apples with similar eating quality characteristics with four different skin colors being Red, Light Burgundy (LB), Burgundy (B) and Dark Burgundy (DB). During testing, panelists liked all classes of apple colors, giving high scores for their visual, textural and flavor characteristics. Panelists rated the color of B and DB apples higher than LB apples, however, ranked Red apples the same as DB. However, in the retail market customers chose to purchase darker colored fruit first before lighter colored. Overall “ANABP 01” apples were highly liked by panelists regardless of color. In any one market, color grading technology could segregate retail supply to a narrow color range to maximize retail sales and minimize fruit waste. Fruit not meeting the leading “ANABP 01” brands burgundy color requirement are still of high quality, liked by consumers and could maximize fruit sales and minimize fruit waste if segregated by color.