LEXICON TO DESCRIBE FLAVOR OF FRESH LEAFY VEGETABLES

ABSTRACT Trends such as organic farming and breeding to increase nutrition and functional health components have increased interest in understanding the flavor of vegetables, such as leafy greens. The main objective of this study was to select, define and reference a lexicon for describing the flavor of fresh leafy vegetables. A highly trained descriptive sensory panel determined a list of 32 sensory attributes that was able to describe the flavor of the fresh leafy greens studied. This lexicon includes five “green” attributes; mouthfeel characteristics such as pungent, bite, tooth‐etch and heat/burn; fundamental tastes including bitter and umami; seven terms that describe unique flavors related to specific vegetables such as cabbage, celery, lettuce, spinach, parsley, beet and radish leaves; and a group of other terms including citrus, piney, woody, water‐like, musty/earthy, floral, sulfur, metallic, soapy, petroleum‐like and overall sweet.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSUnderstanding the effects that different breeding, growing, harvesting, shipping and storage technologies have on properties of leafy vegetables has increased the need for appropriate evaluation tools. Using this lexicon can guide researchers to a better understanding of differences in flavor among various fresh leafy vegetables and can help in understanding changes in flavors of those vegetables resulting from various alterations in the breeding and production systems. This project provides researchers with specific sensory terminology to track changes in fresh leafy greens instead of using generic terms such as “taste” or “typical flavor.”