Eleventh International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Sweet maize dominates the fresh-eating maize market in the United States. However, in other countries, many common fresh-eating maize types are not nearly as sweet and offer various flavors, textures, and culinary properties. Due to high sugars and low seed weight, modern sweet maize varieties in the U.S. often have poor germination, early vigor, weed competitiveness, and ultimately yield, when grown organically. There is a need for varieties bred specifically for organic production and an opportunity to breed novel ‘vegetable maize’, both contributing to diversity on farms and plates. The flavor of vegetable maize must capture the interest of the local consumer, though, in addition to being agronomically robust, for organic farmers to adopt new varieties. This research is comprised of two experiments to select for quality. The first determines if the harvest window of two vegetable maize populations can be widened via a recurrent selection scheme over four cycles. The scheme measures quality attributes of the kernel with two tools that we hypothesize when selected upon will slow sugar to starch conversion and therefore extend the harvest window. The second study determines how much genetic and environmental variability contribute to these quality traits of interest, using a classical mating design with sixty hybrids among four maize endosperm types. Taste tests with consumers and local chefs determine if in-field quality measurements correlate with perception of quality attributes. Together, these experiments reflect the viability of this methodology to select for quality traits in sweet and vegetable maize.