Abstract
Breadfruit [Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg] is a valuable source of food with potential for expanded contributions to global food and nutrition security. Fruit qualities, such as texture and colour, play key roles in consumer preferences and are also important for harvesting, processing, packaging and cultivar identification. However, traditional methods of quality assessments comprising sensory perceptions of colour and texture in fruits and vegetables are subjective and not always reliable. Therefore, instrument assessments that provide quantitative data are increasingly being used to replace or enhance sensory perception methods. The current study used sensory and instrument methods to evaluate colour and texture among 21 breadfruit cultivars grown in Trinidad and Tobago. Sensory evaluation identified a range of skin, pulp colour and skin textures among the breadfruit cultivars. Instrument assessment of skin and pulp colour showed significant (p<0.001) variability among cultivars in lightness/darkness (L), redness/greenness (a), yellowness/blueness (b), chroma (C) and hue angle (h). In terms of instrument assessment of texture, cultivars varied significantly (p<0.001) in skin bio-yield point, pulp bio-yield point and pulp firmness with values ranging from 10.02 - 26.51 N, 3.33 – 22.19 N and 0.92 – 4.01 N, respectively. Moderate but significant (p<0.001) linear relationship existed between sensory skin and pulp colour and instrument colour parameters. However, relationships between sensory and instrument skin texture were non-significant (p>0.05). Differences observed in fruit characteristics support previous findings of high variability in breadfruit and are also useful for cultivar identification, maturity indices determination and cultivar selection for processing and packaging by different methods to enhance breadfruit consumption and contribution to food and nutrition security.