73G-15 |
Relationship between sensory and instrumental hardness of twenty-six cheeses |
R. XIONG, W. K. Chung, and J. -. F. Meullenet. Food Science, University of Arkansas, 2650 N Young Avenue, Fayetteville, AR 72704 Texture is of importance in consumer’s perception of cheese quality. Uniaxial compression is widely used for rheological testing of cheese and gives information about its mechanical properties at a large scale deformation. However, the mechanical properties depend upon deformation and deformation rate. Very little knowledge exists on the effect of both the deformation and the deformation rate on correlation between sensory and instrumental measurements. The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate the effect of both the deformation rate and the deformation on the maximum peak force during compression, and (2) to determine the optimum deformation and deformation rate for which the sensory hardness was most accurately predicted. Sensory and instrumental evaluation were conducted on twenty-six types of commercial cheese using a trained panel and a Texture Analyzer, respectively. Cheese samples were compressed at various maximum deformations of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% and 90%. The deformation rates were adjusted between 0.2 and 10.0 mm/sec. Linear and non-linear regression models were used to model the relationship between the deformation rate and maximum compression force, and to evaluate the correlations between sensory and instrumental measurements. The effect of the deformation rate and deformation was significant on the correlation between sensory and instrumental data. Deformation rate had a great influence on compression force, but a small effect on the correlation. The maximum deformation had a greater influence on the correlation than the deformation rate. The maximum correlation was found at a deformation rate of 0.6 (mm/sec) and deformations of 70 or 80%. However, sensory hardness scores were only marginally well predicted (R=0.75, RMSE=0.93) by the best model obtained. These results imply that both the maximum deformation and the deformation rate should be optimized in order to obtain high correlations between sensory and instrumental data.
Session 73G, Sensory Evaluation
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