DETERMINING A SENSORY PROFILE OF CHEESE PASTE WITH SPICES, USING QUANTITATIVE DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Food should nourish the body, should display sensory properties that make them be easily accepted,  asked  for  in consumption,  and  at  the  same  time  it  should  also  have  a positive  effect  on consumer’s health. This last aspect defines best functional foods. Cheese paste, using a classic  recipe  (by replacing paprika with oregano,  thyme or basil,  all dried) has  been  obtained  and  served  as  sandwiches.  Sensory  analysis was  performed,  using  quantitative descriptive  analysis  (QDA)  for  the  the  new  products  obtained.  The  analysis  was  conducted  by  nine evaluators, who, by means of specific documents (such as questionnaire for collection of descriptors, tasting sheets) and by analyzing tasting samples, identified 85 descriptors in the first phase, then after successive filtrations 41 descriptors were kept  and in the end 12 descriptors were considered to define the  product  characteristics.  Therefore,  the  sensory  analysis  focused  on  the  size  of  spice  particles, paste uniformity (granulometry), white uniform color, and smell of fresh  cow cheese, salty or bitter taste  of  fresh  cow  cheese  and  butter,  cheese  flavors,  specific  spices,  adhesion, persistent  flavor. Definitions  and  an  order  of tasting  were  initially  established  for  all  these  descriptors.  After  having performed the analysis, based on averages values, a  stellar diagram was obtained. It was observed that the obtained profiles for the paste with dried spices (oregano, thyme or basil) were quite similar. Larger differences occurred at bitter taste and aftertaste.  The new pastes differed from the original paste (with paprika) in the uniformity of color and size of the particles, which are due to the physical characteristics of the spices used.