ABSTRACT Two groups of “Flor de Invierno” pears (Pyrus communis L.), one recently harvested and another stored in a refrigerated controlled atmosphere for 7 months, were studied after storage at 20C in a normal atmosphere. Survival analysis was used to estimate sensory shelf life, which was 29 and 15 days for a 50% rejection probability, or 13 and 7 days for a 25% rejection probability for recently harvested and stored pears, respectively. A consumer panel evaluated the overall acceptability of the pears on a 9‐point hedonic scale. Recently harvested pears obtained higher acceptability scores throughout the 20C storage time. Instrumental firmness measurements were performed with a texture analyzer through a compression test. The results obtained showed that prolonged storage in a controlled atmosphere causes changes in the fruit that lead to lower firmness, lower acceptance scores and, consequently, a shorter sensory shelf life.PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSThe use of survival analysis to study the shelf life of foods is quite a novel technique in which the key concept is to focus the shelf life estimation on consumer rejection. In this study, survival analysis was applied to pears, but can be applied to other fruits or foods. This approach is useful to know the adequate storage time of food without detrimental sensory quality changes that would conduct to the consumer rejection. Normally, loss in sensory quality appears before microbiological spoilage in many food, so this methodology could be used to predict sensory shelf life.