Abstract
Summary Data from experiments with carrots grown in phytotrons under different day and night temperatures at two locations in Norway and three harvesting dates were treated by means of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). No effect of the single temperature amplitudes were found, the significant main effects were due to the mean temperature levels of 12 and 188C, location and harvest date. The PCA visualized the effect of mean temperature level on sensory, chemical and physical variables. Differences between the two groups were mainly caused by variation in sensory variables, the first group being characterized by high score for whiteness, sweetness, acidic taste, crispness, juiciness, glucose, fructose and root length. The other group had a high score for colour, odour, overall taste and flavour parameters, firmness, dry matter, sucrose, a and b-carotene, root weight and root diameters.