Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Hibiscus mutabilis Cultivars for Food Development Using Delphi and Analytic Hierarchy Process

Three Hibiscus mutabilis cultivars—'Bairi Huacai', 'Chongbanbai', and 'Jinqiusong'—were ranked Grade I, with overall cultivar scores spanning 2.5785 to 3.6043.

• Why it matters: Food development needs cultivar-specific quality indicators, but a structured way to select and weight those indicators for Hibiscus mutabilis flowers is lacking.
• What they did: Eleven cultivars from Chengdu Botanical Garden were assessed using a Delphi-derived indicator set and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to assign indicator weights and compute overall scores.
• The result: The AHP scoring classified cultivars into three grades, identifying Grade I as preferred for food processing and providing a screening framework for further evaluation.

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