Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Anais do 14 SLACA - Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos

Brazilian native fruits are recognized for their nutritional potential and their exceptional sensory characteristics. However, most remain unknown to most of the population, making interesting initiatives that encourage their integration and strengthening the market. Food appearance is known to be crucial to determine sensory expectations, such as flavor and taste, and has a direct impact on purchase intent. This study aimed to evaluate the sensory expectancy and purchase intention of six Brazilian native fruits bocaiuva (Acrocomia aculeata), buriti (Mauritia flexuosa), grumixama (Eugenia brasiliensis), jatobá-do-Cerrado (Hymenaea stigonocarpa), pitanga (Eugenia uniflora), and umbu (Spondias tuberosa). Using a Check-all-that-apply (CATA) question, the research participants observed two photos of each fruit and selected the attributes of appearance, aroma, flavor, and texture that best corresponded to their sensory expectancy. The purchase intention was measured using a 3-point scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate statistics. 935 Brazilian participants over 18 years old answered the questionnaire, being 19.7% men and 80.3% women, aged 20 - 32 years (53.6%). Most participants were residents of Centro-Oeste and Sudeste Brazilian regions (59.2%). A good correlation between grumixama, pitanga, and umbu was observed, showing a high purchase intention and sour, soft, juicy, and small as main expected attributes. Buriti fruit (expectation: astringent, bittersweet and chewy), bocaiuva (expectation: greasy, crunchy, hard and fibrous) and jatobá-do-Cerrado (expectation: large, farinaceous, bitter, strange and nauseating flavor) did not show correlations. Jatobá-do-Cerrado had lowest purchase intention (2.41), differing statistically from all the others (>2.69) (p<0.05). It concludes that the native fruits studied, generally, showed good sensory expectancy and purchase intention, demonstrating that there must be stimuli for their commercial valorization.