Abstract:

In order to evaluate the suitability of fresh juice from different flat peach cultivars, physicochemical and
nutritional indicators including pH, total phenolics, ascorbic acid, proteins, titratable acidity (TA), soluble sugar content
(SSC), soluble sugar content, titratable acidity, SSC/TA ratio, and pectin were determined, as well as processing quality
indicators including fruit weight, CIE L*, a*, b*, browning index, juice yield, and viscosity. Sensory evaluation was mainly
carried out in terms of color, aroma and taste. SSC, juice yield, pectin, a* value and protein were identified as the core
quality indicators by correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. The weights of the core
indicators were determined by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), 0.32 for SSC and juice yield; 0.18 for pectin; 0.11 for
a*; and 0.07 for protein. Based on the results obtained from the comprehensive suitability evaluation model of fresh flat
peach juices, the quality of fresh juice from Ruipan 21 were the best, followed by Ruipan 20, Ruipan 4 and Ruipan 19, and
Jupan, Ruipan 2 and Ruipan 3 were not suitable for fresh juice processing.

Key words: flat peach juice, quality evaluation, core indicators, analytic hierarchy process (AHP)