Relationship between instrumental parameters and sensory characteristics in gluten-free breads

Abstract

Numerous bread-like gluten-free products have been lately developed due to the rising demand on wheat-free foods. A range of parameters has been used to describe these products, but there is no general agreement about the most suitable assessment to characterize them. The objective of this research was to characterize diverse gluten-free like breads (GFB) in order to discriminate them and to establish possible correlations among descriptive parameters of GFB features determined by instrumental methods and sensory analysis. Statistical analysis showed that all physical, physicochemical characteristics (specific volume, moisture content, water activity, $$ L^{*} $$ , $$ a^{*} $$ , $$ b^{*} $$ , hue and chroma), hydration properties (swelling, water holding capacity and water binding capacity), texture profile analysis parameters (hardness, springiness, chewiness, cohesiveness and resilience), and structural analysis of the crumbs (number of cells and total area) significantly (p < 0.05) discriminated between the GFB types tested. Sensory analysis revealed great divergences in crumb appearance, odor, springiness, crumbliness, and color of samples, but no significant differences (p < 0.05) in flavor, aftertaste, and hardness of them. Certain significant correlations were established within the parameters determined by instrumental methods. Hydration properties of the crumb showed positive correlations with cohesiveness and resilience. Significant correlations, but scientifically meaningless, were observed among the instrumental and sensory parameters, because correlation coefficients were rather low, which represent very weak or low linear correlations (r ≤ 0.35). The principal component analysis showed that sensory parameters described in this study and also hydration properties besides texture parameters would be suitable for characterizing bread-like gluten-free products.