抄録
Consumers of organically-grown vegetables often believe that these products are healthful and taste better than conventionally-grown vegetables. However, nutrient content and organoleptic characteristics vary from farm and year to year. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of agricultural technique on the production of high quality vegetables each year, for 3 years. Nutrient component analysis and a sensory test (of quality, as indicated by appearance, texture and taste) of spinach and komatsuna were carried out on produce from an organic farm and a conventional farm in Mie prefecture. Cultivation practices were the responsibility of each farmer, who had been selected (from our previous studies) because they had cultivated organically-grown spinach or conventionally-grown komatsuna that had scored highly in the sensory test.
The amount of nutrients of komatsuna was no significant differences. The appearance and texture of organically-grown komatsuna were preferred but preference based on taste was different between each years. The water, manganese and total of free amino acid contents of organically-grown spinach were lower, and the sodium and oxalic acid contents were higher than those of conventionally-grown spinach. For each of the 3 years, the organically-grown spinach scored highly in almost every parameter of the sensory test. The spinach might be more susceptible to the effect of organic manure than komatsuna. The results suggest that cultivation technique is likely to contribute vegetable quality. Future study is needed to determine the influence of agricultural practices on nutrient content, taste and the eating quality of vegetables after cooking.
