Improvement of Sensory Quality and Composition of Virginia-Type Peanuts

This project monitors the flavor intensity of breeding lines under consideration for cultivar release by the breeding program at NCSU. All potential new releases are subjected to a more or less long-term evaluation of flavor. We find that in order to obtain reliable mean sensory panel values for a line, one must have samples from at least three crop years, so the mean values for lines tested for a first or second year in a given year must be viewed as preliminary ones subject to change as more data is accumulated. Our ultimate objective is to make sure that the lines we do release for use as cultivars are superior in terms of flavor or at least do not have less intense "positive" flavor or more intense "negative" flavor compared with standard cultivars.