Advanced Sensory and Analytical Methodologies in Horticultural Cultivar Development and Fresh Produce Marketing
A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Processed Horticultural Products".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 May 2026 | Viewed by 963
Special Issue Editors
Interests: fermentation science; wine science; nutraceuticals; analytical chemistry; food safety; waste valorisation; sustainable biotechnology; future foods
Interests: development and production of high-quality food crops; sensory and consumer science; food and flavour chemistry
Interests: food engineering; consumer-oriented product or service development; sensory and data science; modelling and simulation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The fresh produce sector has evolved from a commodity-based market to one defined by value-added and branded horticultural cultivars. This transformation has placed sensory quality at the centre of cultivar success. Techniques such as temporal sensory methods, rapid profiling, tribology, instrumental–sensory correlations, and multi-omics integration are shaping how horticultural breeding programmes identify and select desirable traits. These methods not only improve reproducibility under biological variability but also accelerate decision-making in early horticultural cultivar screening. Likewise, consumer science approaches, including cross-cultural segmentation, emotional profiling, and behavioural analytics, provide deeper insight into market acceptance. However, integrating sensory and consumer science into horticultural breeding faces persistent challenges such as high natural variability, the complexity of controlling maturity and ripeness, and the influence of postharvest processing on perceived quality.
This Special Issue welcomes high quality research involving (1) new methodological innovations and advancements for horticultural cultivar evaluation, (2) the application of sensory and consumer science in breeding pipelines to identify sensory drivers of acceptance, and (3) evidence-based frameworks for marketing of fresh produce in diverse cultural and retail contexts.
Dr. Billy Yi Yang
Dr. Renata Carneiro
Dr. Shaoyang Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- horticultural breeding
- genotype–environment interactions
- fresh produce
- sensory evaluation
- instrumental–omics integration
- postharvest quality
- consumer science
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