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New perspectives on sensory profiling of fermented milk products |
D. D. MUIR, Hannah Research Institute, Ayr, KA6 5HL, United Kingdom A typical sensory profile describes the appearance; smell, flavour, aftertaste and mouth feel of food or beverages. It is derived from an objective rating of individual descriptors that together comprise the sensory vocabulary. Sensory measurement has much in common with other analytical procedures. However the human assessor is difficult to ‘calibrate’ and quality assurance is not straightforward. Four key elements contribute to success: a) Selection of assessors with the inherent ability to discriminate between stimuli and to describe stimuli in a consistent manner. These skills can be fine-tuned by appropriate training. (However, training is not a substitute for deficiencies in assessor performance), b) Establishment of a comprehensive vocabulary that is unambiguous and concise, c) Development of a protocol to rate the magnitude of each attribute, taking into account acclimatisation, briefing before the assessment of samples, the environment in which the assessment takes place, sample presentation, the rating procedure and the method of recording results and d) An analysis scheme that provides a clear interpretation of results. The robustness of the profiling technique is improved by including multiple reference materials during profiling. This concept has been successfully applied to the profiling of the mouth feel and flavour of cheese, but is not suitable for use with large sample sets. An alternative approach employs a single reference sample against which all test material is compared. The use of a comparative rating procedure for discriminating between stimuli by multivariate mapping of the sensory character of fermented milks is described. In addition, improved procedures for general quality control and for taint evaluation are also discussed. Furthermore, data gathered using the reference system is successfully analysed using the DDASPP procedures.
Session 33, Sensory evaluation of dairy flavors
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