RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INSTRUMENTAL AND SENSORY ANALYSIS OF TEXTURE AND COLOR OF POTATO CHIPS

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe instrumental and sensory analysis of the texture and color of commercial potato chips were compared. The instrumental measurement was a puncture test with an Intron Universal Testing Machine, and the parameters used were fracture force, deformation and stiffness. The instrumental color quantification was a computerized video image analysis technique, and the color was expressed as L*a*b* values. Sensory evaluation of texture and color was performed by a sensory panel especially trained in evaluating potato chips. The sensory attributes were “hardness”, “chewiness”, “crunchiness”, and “tenderness” for texture analysis, and “yellow color”, “burnt aspect”, “sugar colored aspect” and “transparency” for color analysis. The factor analysis of the sensory attributes indicated that texture can be divided into two principal components, one represented by “hardness”, “crunchiness” and “chewiness”, and the other by “tenderness” alone. The factor analysis of the color can be divided into two principal components, one including “yellow color” and “burnt aspect”, and the other “sugar colored aspect” and “transparency”. Discriminant analysis showed that “tenderness” and “crunchiness” could predict correctly over 90% of the data. Fracture force correlated well with all of the sensory attributes (R2 > 0.76), and L* with the sensory color attributes (R2 > 0.79). The “Tenderness” was the individual sensory attribute which had the highest correlation (R2= 0.95) with fracture force.