73G-10 |
Sensory assessment of crispness in a breaded fried foods held under a heat lamp |
I. ANTONOVA1, P. Mallikarjunan1, and S. Duncan2. (1) Dept. of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State Univ., 200 Seitz Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0303, (2) Dept. of Food Science & Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State Univ., 30 FST Bldg., Blacksburg, VA 24061-0418 Crispness is very important textural characteristic that indicates freshness and high quality in fried foods. There is no objective method available to determine crispness for fried foods with high moisture core. Development of a technique that can be correlated to sensory crispness will provide new opportunities to develop products with desirable attributes. The objectives of this study are to develop and test a panelist training procedure for evaluating crispness of the breaded fried foods, assess whether panelists can perceive the intensity differences of crispness among the products, and correlate the objective crispness to the sensory crispness. The battered, breaded and par-fried chicken nuggets were finish cooked in a restaurant type fryer, convection oven, and microwave oven. The fried samples were placed uncovered under the heat lamp (60 °C) to maintain crispness. An eight-member panel was selected and trained to describe the texture of fried foods, focusing on crispness. All subjects were put through the screening tests. The training period involved twelve sessions over a period of seven weeks. Experiments were then conducted over ten sessions in which the panelists were presented actual tests samples. Panelists rated crispness on a nine-point category scale. The panelists perceived a significant difference in crispness among the samples tested (P £ 0.05). Panel determined the increasing in crispness intensity with time among the samples held under the heat lamp. The mean scores for the crispness were significantly higher for the samples cooked in the fryer (7.14 – 8.86) compared to both the samples cooked in the convection oven (3.43 – 5.87) and microwave oven (1.0 – 1.63). The developed procedure for evaluating crispness of the breaded fried foods can be used to correlate the objective crispness measurements. The research work to associate the sensory scores and instrumental measurements (Instron & Ultrasonic) is underway.
Session 73G, Sensory Evaluation
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