Objective Measurements Associated with the Preferred Eating Qualities of Fermented Salamis

• Published in: Foods Vol. 10; no. 9; p. 2003
• Main Authors: Kim, Jihan, Knowles, Scott, Ahmad, Raise, Day, Li
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 26.08.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Alcohols; Aroma compounds; consumer perception; Consumers; Consumption; Discussion groups; Eating quality; Esters; Fatty acids; Fermentation; Flavor; Flavors; Food science; kokumi; Meat; Meat products; Microorganisms; objective measures; Peptides; Perceptions; product quality; salami; Sensory evaluation; Sensory properties; Spices; Sulfur compounds; Taste; Temperature perception; Terpenes; Texture; Volatile compounds; Water activity; New Zealand; Beijing China; United States > US; China
• ISSN: 2304-8158; 2304-8158
• DOI: 10.3390/foods10092003

The development of new food products can be expedited by understanding the physicochemical attributes that are most relevant to consumers. Although many objective analyses are possible, not all are a suitable proxy to serve as quality markers associated with sensory preferences. In this work, we selected nine candidate laboratory assays to use on six commercial salamis, which were also eaten and informally described by a consumer discussion group familiar with China-sourced meat products. Several objective measures were strongly related to the flavour perceptions: (i) texture: instrumental texture values, fat release at oral temperature and fat saturation ratios, (ii) aroma: volatile compounds (e.g., alcohols and esters) associated with microbial fermentation and spices (terpenes and sulphur compounds) and (iii) taste: kokumi taste receptor responses. The fat released at oral temperature was associated with unsaturated fatty acids (r = 0.73). However, there was less explanatory worth for associations between sensory perceptions and proximate composition, water activity, pH or L*, a*, b* colourimetry.