Peach Marketing: Can Peach Consumption be Increased?

California is followed by South Carolina (63,000 tons), Georgia (43,300 tons), New Jersey (20,000 tons) and Pennsylvania (16,000 tons). These values change a little each year depending on growing conditions. Per capita consumption of fresh peaches was stable from the 1980s until about 2003 but has been declining for more than a decade (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Per capita peach consumption from 2000 to 2017. (Consumer Goods and FMCG, Statista.com)

Why is peach consumption declining?

I think there are many reasons for the decline. There is increasing competition from other fruits such as mangos and other tropical fruits, that were rarely in supermarkets 20 years ago. Also, fruits that previously were not available during the peach season, such as grapes and berry crops are now available year-round. However, I think a major factor is that peaches sold through the wholesale system often lack eating quality and the expectations of consumers may not always match what they get when they eat peaches.

Who Buys Peaches?

According to previous studies, only one in three households purchased peaches in 2013, and they purchased peaches an average of only three times per year. Peach purchasers were more likely to be middle-income to affluent couples 55-75 years of age, and they tended to be engaged in cooking and health-focused (Nielson Perishables Groups FreshFacts, 2013). Non-peach consumers tended to be young singles focused on quick-cooking convenience foods.

According to consumer surveys, consumers equate internal quality with firmness and external color and fruit size is less important. Multiple studies show that consumers are willing to pay a premium for locally-grown produce. Another national survey indicated that "taste" is the major driver of food purchase decisions, ahead of price, healthfulness or convenience. Another survey found that most consumers were satisfied with the size of peaches, but only 31% were satisfied with peach quality and 40% indicated that peaches were not as sweet as they should be (Brovelli et al. (1999). Therefore, it seems that enhancing the flavor, especially sweetness, of peaches is important for increasing sales.

What do consumers want?

A few years ago, we studied consumer peach preferences and purchasing behavior (Kelley et al. 2016). The study used an internet survey to collect information from 1093 consumers, and 100 adults from central Pennsylvania also participated in a peach sensory evaluation and were asked to evaluate slices of 4 peach varieties ('Redhaven', 'Raritan Rose', 'PF Lucky 13', and 'Blazingstar') grown in Adams County. One interesting result was that 1/3 of survey respondents who consume peaches regularly indicated they would increase purchases if nutritional value of the peach is stated and 38% indicated that their peach purchases would increase if there were information on how to store peaches. These types of information should be easy to present at retail markets and even in grocery stores.

Of the survey respondents, 89% said they prefer sweet peaches, 29% prefer slightly hard, and 60% prefer slightly soft peaches. Only 12% preferred solid dark red peel color, 31% preferred red over yellow, 22% preferred mottled red over yellow, and 34% had no preference for peel color. Therefore, the pressure to produce peaches with more red color does not seem to be driven by consumer demand. 41% preferred freestone and 18% preferred clingstone varieties, and surprisingly 41% had no preference for flesh type.

The sensory panelists liked some varieties better than others, based on the mean liking score of 1 to 9, where 1 = dislike extremely, 5 = neither like or dislike, and 9 = like extremely. Some initial measurements of fruit quality showed that 'PF Lucky 13' had the highest soluble solids and titratable acidity, whereas 'Redhaven' was lowest for both metrics. They rated 'PF Lucky 13" the highest for color, sweetness, texture, and flavor, and rated 'Raritan Rose' lowest for all those characteristics. The overall rating was also higher for 'Redhaven' than for 'Blazingstar.' Since flavor characteristics for a variety can vary from year-to-year and even day-to-day if there is a thunderstorm, I am not sure these results are repeatable, but they do show that people can distinguish flavor characteristics between varieties.

Eating a high-quality peach is a truly wonderful experience. However, I believe that most Americans have never had that experience. When I worked at Rutgers, my wife and I lived on the research and education center in Cream Ridge. During peach season, we spent several evenings a week sampling peaches in the breeding program, and there was great variability in quality. One weekend we had friends visiting, and I took them out to get some peaches. I told them to try fruit from different trees until they found a good one. They thought the first tree they tried had the best peaches they ever tasted. I tried one and told them that those peaches were mediocre and to try some other trees. They never found a tree that they thought was only mediocre. This was when I realized that consumer expectations are pretty low because most people have never had a good tree-ripened peach.

About 20 years ago, researchers at UC Davis initiated a systematic research program with the goal of increasing peach consumption by enhancing peach fruit quality. The first step was to conduct a survey to identify quality attributes. The second step was to relate preharvest orchard practices to quality parameters. The third step was to identify important characteristics of quality, such as sweetness, sourness, aroma, texture, firmness and flavor intensity. The final step was to conduct in-store consumer tests to define quality indices.

Post-harvest handling affects fruit quality

From consumer surveys, they learned that consumers were turned off by fruit that is hard or unripe, mealy, lack taste, and have flesh browning or that fail to ripen. Consumers did not understand the difference between "mature" and "ripe" (ready to eat). Peaches destined for the wholesale market are usually harvested at the early stages of ripening when ethylene production is high enough that fruit will continue to ripen after harvest (Crisosto, 2002). The rate of ripening depends on the variety and the temperature. Peaches ripen fastest at 68 to 75⁰F. Ripening is slower at temperatures above 77⁰ and below 68⁰ and often ripen irregularly with off flavors.

White flesh varieties usually soften faster than yellow flesh types. Flesh firmness is the best indicator of ripening and is one predictor of potential shelf life. Fruit with 6 to 8 lbs firmness are ready to buy and are fairly resistant to bruising. Fruit with 2 to 3 lbs firmness are ripe enough to eat but bruise easily. The rate of softening depends on temperature, and at a given temperature softening varies with variety.

Off flavors, flesh mealiness, lack of juiciness (wooliness), flesh browning and black cavity pit are associated with internal breakdown, also called "chilling injury," in fruit that are ripened after cold storage. These symptoms vary with variety and normally appear after ripening fruit at room temperature following cold storage. Internal breakdown is most severe when fruit are held between 36 and 46⁰F, and symptoms are usually less severe and develop more slowly when peaches are held at 32⁰F. 'O'Henry' market life was reduced from 4 weeks at 32⁰F to only one week at 41⁰F. When fruit were stored at 41⁰F off-flavors were detectable after just one week, mealiness was detected after two weeks, and flesh browning was apparent after three weeks in storage.

Several methods have been tested to enhance peach storage, but preconditioning seems to offer the most promise. Preconditioning involves exposing fruit to warm conditions (68⁰F) for 1 or 2 days after harvest before placing them in cold storage at 32⁰F. These warm temperatures induce changes in the cell walls that are similar to the changes that occur in fruit ripened without storage. Research in California (Crisosto et al. 2004) and in Chile (Infante et al. 2009) showed that preconditioning can increase minimum market life by up to 2 weeks, reduce symptoms associated with internal breakdown and enhance consumer acceptance.

Varieties have different storage potential

The severity of internal breakdown varies for different varieties. Crisosto et al. (1999) evaluated 25 nectarine and 32 peach varieties grown in California. Fruit were harvested based on ground color using color-chips and were forced-air cooled to 32⁰ to 35⁰F within 6 hours of harvest and then stored for up to 5 weeks at 32⁰F or 41⁰F. At weekly intervals, fruit were removed from storage and ripened at 68⁰F until fruit softened to 2 to 4 lbs. The time required for fruit to soften varied from 3 to 7 days depending on the variety.

They found that all varieties stored better at 32⁰ than at 41⁰F and storage/shipping potential at 32⁰F varied from 3 to 5 weeks depending on the variety, but most developed chilling injury. Among the yellow-fleshed varieties, early-season varieties were the least susceptible to chilling injury and were not affected by storage temperature. Middle-season varieties were less susceptible to chilling injury at 32°F but highly susceptible at 41°F. Late-season varieties were susceptible to chilling injury at both temperatures.

One of the four nectarine varieties was susceptible to chilling injury. For white-flesh peach varieties, the harvest season (early, middle, or late) did not affect chilling injury susceptibility. The storage/shipping potential at 32°F and 41°F varied from about 3 to 5 weeks, and 1.5 to 5 weeks, respectively.

The take-home message of all of this is that we can store most peach varieties for at least three weeks and upon ripening, the fruit will have good eating quality. The optimum storage temperature differs for different varieties, and we have little information on post-harvest handling of peaches grown in the northeast. At this point, best management practices include harvesting fruit based on ground color, precondition the fruit at 68⁰F for 1 or 2 days, then store fruit at 32⁰F to 34⁰F, and ripen the fruit at 68 to 75⁰F. It would be desirable to have a peach post-harvest physiologist in the east to verify that eastern-grown peaches will respond similarly to these practices.

In a future article, I will summarize how peach breeders are trying to develop varieties with improved eating quality and health benefits.

Literature Cited

Brovelli E.A., J.K. Brecht, W.B. Sherman, C.A. Sims, and J.M. Harrison. 1999. Sensory and compositional attributes of melting‐ and non‐melting‐flesh peaches for the fresh market. J. Sci. Food Agric. 79:707–712.

Crisosto, C.H. 2002. How do we increase peach consumption? Acta Hort. 592:601-605.

Crisosto, C.H., D. Garner, H.L. Andris, and K.R. Day. 2004. Controlled delayed cooling extends peach market life. HortTechnology 14:99-104.

Crisosto, C.H., F. G. Mitchell, and Z. Ju. 1999. Susceptibility to chilling injury of peach, nectarine, and plum cultivars grown in California. HortScience 34:1116-1118.

Infante, R., C. Meneses, and C.H. Crisosto. 2009. Preconditioning treatment maintains taste characteristic perception of ripe 'September Sun' peach following cold storage. J. Food Sci. & Technol. 44:1011-1016.

Kelly, K.M., R. Primrose, R. Crassweller, J.E. Hayes, and R. Marini. 2016. Consumer peach preferences and purchasing behavior: a mixed methods study. J. Sci. Food and Agr. 96:2451-2461.

Nielsen Perishables Group FreshFacts®, Marketing opportunities for the peach industry. Presentation for the National Peach Council (2013).