Using dynamic sensory techniques to determine drivers of liking in sodium and fat-reduced Bologna sausage containing functional emulsion gels.

Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS) and Temporal Check-all-that-apply (TCATA) are fast and dynamic descriptive techniques for sensory characterization of food. The temporal perception involved during the consumption of reformulated meat products are rarely considered and, in this context, the aim of the present work was to evaluate the influence of salt and fat reduction on Bologna sausage with addition of emulsion gel in the dynamic sensorial perception by using TDS and TCATA methods considering overall liking. After the dynamic sensory characterization tasks, consumers rated their liking using a 9-point hedonic scale. The findings showed that fat and salt reduction, and the addition of emulsion gels as fat replacers affected the sensory characteristics of the Bologna sausages. Regarding the methods, both studies collected the variations between samples with a great correlation between data. The TDS and TCATA curves revealed that texture attributes (firm and soft) were dominant at the beginning of the evaluation for all samples. TCATA also showed that juicy was dominant in the first 15 s of eating period. Related to overall liking, control sample (2% salt and 20% pork back fat) presented the highest scores (7.25 for TDS and 7.24 for TCATA) and Bolognas sausages with emulsion gels and reduced in salt were less accepted (4.95 for TDS and 5.86 for TCATA). Bologna flavor was the major attribute related to liking and fat flavor the main driver of disliking. Results from the present work suggest that dynamic sensorial methods are effective tools to characterize reformulated meat products.

Cross-modal interactions as a strategy for sugar reduction in products targeted at children: Case study with vanilla milk desserts.

The high availability of products with high sugar content, particularly among those targeted as children, has been identified as one of the factors that contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. For this reason, product reformulation has been recommended as one of the strategies that can be implemented to achieve short-term reductions in children's sugar intake. In this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of using cross-modal (taste-odor-texture) interactions as a strategy for reducing the sugar content of products targeted at children, using milk desserts as case study. A series of 5 vanilla milk desserts were formulated: a control sample with 12% added sugar and 4 sugar-reduced samples (7% added sugar) prepared following a 2 × 2 experimental design by varying vanilla (0.4% and 0.6% w/w) and starch (4.3% and 4.7% w/w) concentrations. A total of 112 children (8-12 years old) tasted the desserts and performed a dynamic sensory characterization task using either temporal check-all-that-apply or temporal dominance of sensations. In addition, they assessed the overall liking of all samples. Results showed that sugar-reduced samples did not significantly differ from the control sample in terms of their average overall liking scores. However, individual differences in children's hedonic reaction were found; three clusters of children with distinctive liking patterns were identified. The increase in vanilla and starch concentration led to an increase in overall liking for over 80% of the children. Sensory dynamic profiles revealed significant but subtle differences among samples. Results from the present work suggest that cross-modal interactions could contribute to minimizing the sensory changes caused by sugar reduction, which could enable to achieve larger reductions if implemented in the context of gradual sugar reduction programs.

Comparison of static and dynamic sensory product characterizations based on check-all-that-apply questions with consumers.

The aim of the present work was to compare static and dynamic sensory product characterizations based on check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions with consumers. Three studies involving a total of 310 consumers were carried out. In each study, a between-subjects experimental design was used to compare static sensory characterizations obtained using CATA questions with dynamic characterizations over a relatively short time period using temporal CATA (TCATA). Three different product categories were evaluated (orange juice, strawberry yogurt, and vanilla milk desserts) using 6-11 sensory terms. TCATA data were analysed as CATA considering fixed time periods throughout the evaluation. CATA and TCATA were compared in terms of frequency of use of the terms, sample discrimination, and sample and term configurations. Asking consumers to continuously select the attributes that applied to describe a product and to deselect those that no longer applied during the evaluation period did not substantially modify the average citation proportion of terms or the maximum citation proportion for individual terms for liquid and semi-solid products with a relatively fast oral preparatory phase. Although both methodologies provided similar information, additional insights on how similarities and differences among samples evolved during consumption were obtained with TCATA in the case of products that experience large temporal changes or attributes with strong time-dependency. CATA provided similar information as TCATA for sensory attributes that did not change substantially during the evaluation period. Results from the present work suggest that static and dynamic product sensory characterizations using CATA questions with consumers provide complementary information about consumer experiences with food products.