RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SENSORY AND INSTRUMENTAL MEASUREMENTS OF TEXTURE FOR ARTISANAL AND INDUSTRIAL MANCHEGO CHEESES

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rheological characteristics of eight Manchego cheeses (four artisanal produced from raw ewe milk and four industrial cheeses from pasteurized ewe milk) with different ripening time (2, 4, 6 and 12 months) were evaluated by uniaxial compression and descriptive sensory analysis. Both the instrumental texture measurements and the intensity of the sensory texture attributes evaluated were found to vary during ripening time because of the manufacturing procedure (artisanal and industrial). Partial least square regression was used to predict the sensory texture characteristics of these cheeses, as expressed by different parameters of texture; hardness, Young's modulus or elastic modulus, stiffness, breaking force and strain at breaking point. The models obtained yielded good results for the prediction of sensory texture characteristics of Manchego cheeses: the root mean square error of calibration and the root mean square error of prediction by cross‐validation were both below 1.1 on the unstructured 10‐point scale used in descriptive sensory texture analysis. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSWhile fundamental rheological tests reveal important information in relation to network structure and molecular arrangement, the results obtained in this study indicate that empirical texture evaluations work equally as well or even better at predicting sensory texture properties. The eating and cutting properties of Manchego cheese depend not only on conditions of curd formation and handling, but also on storage conditions. Not only functional properties like eating and cutting, but also flavor properties change during storage. Understanding how these changes occur can reduce the variability of the properties of current commercial cheese and can assist in new product development.