Emotional responses to the consumption of dry-cured hams by Spanish consumers: A temporal approach.

The objective of this study was to describe for the first time the emotional responses during the consumption of three types of Spanish dry-cured hams, namely, 'Iberian', 'Serrano' and 'Curado'. Moreover, dynamic sensory techniques such as Temporal Dominance of Emotions and Temporal Dominance of Sensations were applied to identify the dominant emotions and sensory attributes perceived during ham consumption. >50 emotional terms were generated during sample consumption including positive, negative and neutral terms. Noticeable differences were detected among the three types of dry-cured ham for their emotional profiles. The most dominant emotions evoked by Iberian dry-cured hams were "intense", "authentic" and "pleasant" and could be associated with the domination of cured flavour and juiciness, with both attributes being closely related to their high intramuscular fat content. However, in Serrano and Curado dry-cured hams, the domination of saltiness attribute seemed to contribute to evoking negative emotions as "ordinary", "indifferent" and "dissatisfied". Finally, high duration of the domination of positive emotions as "desirable", "intense", "pleasant" and "authentic" contributed to high overall liking scores.

Reporting the sensory properties of dry-cured ham using a new language: Time intensity (TI) and temporal dominance of sensations (TDS).

The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of salt content (normal and reduced) and feeding system (montanera and concentrate) on the dynamic sensory characteristics of dry-cured hams using time-intensity (TI) and Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) techniques. Differences in the temporal sensory information given by the two different techniques were found. Significant differences in the temporal perception of flavour and texture were detected between normal and reduced salt content dry-cured hams which are a Spanish pricy meat product very appreciated by consumers due to its particular sensory characteristics. The effect of the feeding system was mainly observed on flavour attributes such as saltiness and cured flavour and texture attributes such as juiciness. The application of TDS technique to study temporal sensory attributes of dry-cured ham is reported for the first time in the present article.

Effect of protein oxidation on the impaired quality of dry-cured loins produced from frozen pork meat.

Dry-cured loins elaborated from frozen (-20 °C/20 weeks)/thawed longissimus dorsi muscles (F) were compared with counterparts elaborated from fresh (unfrozen) muscles (UF) for the extent of protein oxidation (carbonylation and Schiff base formation) and their sensory profile (quantitative-descriptive analysis). All samples had similar moisture, fat and protein contents (p>0.05). In accordance with previous studies, freezing meat prior to processing affected the oxidative stability of meat proteins. This chemical change occurred concomitantly with modifications of the sensory profile of the loins as F-samples received significantly (p<0.05) higher scores for rancid and salty flavor, hardness and fibrousness than UF-counterparts. The formation of cross-links (assessed as Schiff bases) during freezing and the subsequent processing may have contributed to strengthening the meat structure and hence, impairing the texture properties of dry-cured loins.

Salt and intramuscular fat modulate dynamic perception of flavour and texture in dry-cured hams.

The present study aimed to evaluate the influence of salt and intramuscular fat (IMF) content on the sensory characteristics of two different types of dry-cured hams (Iberian and Serrano) using the time-intensity (TI) method. All studied TI parameters of flavour attributes (overall flavour, saltiness, cured and rancid flavours) were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by variations in the salt and/or IMF content. However, regarding texture attributes only the maximum intensity (Imax) of hardness was significantly (p < 0.05) affected by the salt content of hams. Compared to Iberian dry-cured hams, the dynamic perception of the flavour and texture of Serrano dry-cured hams was less influenced by variations in salt and/or IMF content. The dynamic sensory techniques may be helpful to guarantee the quality of dry-cured products subjected to strategies of salt and fat reduction.

A novel approach to assess temporal sensory perception of muscle foods: application of a time-intensity technique to diverse Iberian meat products.

Although dynamic sensory techniques such as time-intensity (TI) have been applied to certain meat products, existing knowledge regarding the temporal sensory perception of muscle foods is still limited. The objective of the present study was to apply TI to the flavour and texture perception of three different Iberian meat products: liver pâté, dry-cured sausages ("salchichon") and dry-cured loin. Moreover, the advantages of using dynamic versus static sensory techniques were explored by subjecting the same products to a quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA). TI was a suitable technique to assess the impact of composition and structure of the three meat products on flavour and texture perception from a dynamic perspective. TI parameters extracted from the TI-curves and related to temporal perception enabled the detection of clear differences in sensory temporal perception between the meat products and provided additional insight on sensory perception compared to the conventional static sensory technique (QDA).