42-11 |
Correlation between instrumental and sensory measurements of crispness in breaded fried chicken nuggets |
I. Antonova and P. MALLIKARJUNAN. Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 200 Seitz Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061 Crispness is one of the most distinctive textural characteristics of dry crisp and fried products. A reliable objective method to evaluate crispness of breaded fried foods is not currently available. This study was undertaken with following objectives to: determine ultrasonic parameters that can correlate well with sensory crispness, measure mechanical properties for breaded fried chicken nuggets, and investigate the relationships between the instrumental parameters and sensory crispness scores obtained using trained panel. The breaded par-fried chicken nuggets were finish cooked using: (1) finish-fried in a deep-fat fryer, (2) baked in a convection oven or (3) heated in a microwave oven. Sensory panel consisting eight trained members was used to evaluate sensory crispness in the samples. The ultrasonic system developed at Virginia Tech was used to conduct ultrasonic measurements. Sample texture was measured using Kramer Shear-Compression cell attached to a universal testing machine. Significant differences in ultrasonic velocity, transmission loss, and peak force were observed among the samples cooked by different methods. Ultrasonic velocity increased with increasing holding time, indicating that samples became crispier during holding under a heat lamp. This can be attributed to the changes in moisture content during holding. However, transmission loss and peak force did not significantly change with holding time. The peak frequencies were found in a range of 21.6 – 25.2 kHz, 84.6 – 88.2 kHz, and 136.8 – 138.6 kHz, respectively. Samples stored under a heat lamp had higher signal amplitudes for each peak frequency than those stored under ambient conditions. This could be due to lack of crispness (or being soggy) in the samples kept under ambient conditions. Ultrasonic velocity had better correlation with sensory crispness than peak force and transmission loss. This indicated that sensory crispness could be reasonably well predicted by the ultrasonic velocity.
Session 42, Food Engineering: Rheology and texture
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