Relationship between Sensory Attributes, (Dis) Liking and Volatile Organic Composition of Gorgonzola PDO Cheese.

Luisa Torri,Maria Piochi,Eugenio Aprea,Giorgia Cabrino,Alessia Colaianni,Isabella Endrizzi,Flavia Gasperi

doi:10.3390/foods10112791

Abstract

Blue-veined cheese tends to polarize the consumers’ affective responses due to its strong flavor. This study aims to: (i) explore the consumers’ sensory perceptions and liking of Gorgonzola PDO cheese; (ii) identify the sensory drivers of acceptance for Gorgonzola in the function of the cheese style; (iii) characterize them by the volatile organic compounds (VOCs); and (iv) explore the relationships of the VOCs with sensory perception and liking. Six samples of Gorgonzola cheese differing in style (sweet vs. piquant), aging time (70–95 days), and production process (artisanal vs. industrial) were evaluated by 358 subjects (46% males, 18–77 years) using liking and Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) tests. The cheese VOCs were measured by SPME/GC-MS. Liking was significantly higher for the sweet cheese than for the piquant cheese and for the artisanal cheese than for the industrial samples. Penalty Analysis showed that ‘creamy’, ‘sweet’, ‘nutty’, and ‘salty’ were significant drivers of liking while the ‘soapy’ and ‘ammonia’ flavors turned out to be drivers of disliking. Fifty-three VOCs were identified. Regression models revealed the significant highest associations between the VOCs and ‘ammonia’, ‘pungent’, ‘soapy’, and ‘moldy’ flavors. A good association was also found with the consumers’ liking. The identification of the sensory drivers of (dis) liking and their relationship with the VOCs of Gorgonzola opens up a new understanding of the consumers’ blue-veined cheese preferences.

Highlights

IntroductionGorgonzola is an Italian blue-veined cheese, produced with full-fat pasteurized cow’s milk and recognized as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) by the European
It is possible to see that all six products were accepted by consumers as the mean values obtained by the total of the subjects ranged from 63.8 to 69.8 and were above the ‘like slightly’ point of the Labeled Affective Magnitude (LAM) scale and close to the ‘like moderately’ verbal anchor [25]
The consumers’ preferences and the effect of gender on liking for six Gorgonzola Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheese products differing in terms of style, aging time of the cheese wheels (70–95 days), and the production process were investigated to explore the cheese factors playing a role in the Gorgonzola acceptance

Summary

Introduction

Gorgonzola is an Italian blue-veined cheese, produced with full-fat pasteurized cow’s milk and recognized as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) by the European. The Gorgonzola is included among the so-called ‘blue-veined cheeses’ (with other types of cheese, such as the French Roquefort, the English Stilton, the Danish Danablu, etc.), produced by the inoculum of mold spores such as Penicillium roqueforti [7,8], and it is characterized by the typical piercing (in Italian ‘siringatura’) of the cheese before the aging phase. The Gorgonzola revealed a quite different composition from the other blue-veined types of cheese as this cheese has an extensive degradation of both αs1and β-caseins; it contained considerably higher concentrations of small peptides and free amino acids [10], and it has a high final pH (>6.0) with an approximate composition of about 30% fat, 20% protein, and 45% moisture [11]

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