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B. A. MCGOWAN, G. W. Padua, and S.-Y. Lee. Dept. of Food Science & Human Nutrition, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 905 S. Goodwin Ave., 376 Bevier Hall, Urbana, IL 61801 Corn zein as a natural gum base was used to provide an alternative to synthetic gum base. Use of corn zein is advantageous as it is biodegradable and beneficial to agriculture. The objectives were to develop a corn zein chewing gum and to evaluate the taste, texture and aroma qualities compared to the conventionally used synthetic gum base using a time-intensity (T-I) method. Four corn zein gum samples containing different plasticizers, oleic acid, propylene glycol, glycerin and no plasticizer, were developed. Nine panelists evaluated the taste, texture and aroma in comparison to 2 synthetic gum base samples as the controls. Thirteen attributes were evaluated. Time to maximum intensity, maximum intensity and duration were parameters extracted from the time-intensity curve. Results were analyzed using analysis of variance and least significant difference multiple comparisons. The no plasticizer sample was rated highest for stale, rancid and cheesy aromas. The propylene glycol sample was rated lowest for these attributes and highest for cinnamon aroma. The control samples were lower for maximum intensity of bitter and higher for maximum intensity of cinnamon and sweet taste. For the corn zein samples, the oleic acid sample had the best texture, but did not score well for taste as it scored lowest for sweet taste and highest for bitter. For texture, this sample was rated highest for maximum intensity of chewiness and lowest for maximum intensity of hardness. The glycerin sample was rated lowest for cohesiveness and maximum intensities of cinnamon and chewy. This study showed high potential of using corn zein as an alternative to synthetic gum base. Future study for optimization of zein gum base formulation is needed on the specific flavor release properties. After further optimization of the gum formulation, consumer testing would be beneficial to assess acceptance.
Session 97, Sensory Evaluation: Analytical testing
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