Sensory profiles of cooked grains from wheat species and varieties

Abstract

To assess differentiation in the flavour and odour properties of cooked wheat grain by sensory evaluation, 24 wheat samples representing different species, landraces and cultivars of wheat were served to a trained sensory panel. Descriptors were established by trained panellists to describe odour, flavour, appearance and texture attributes. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences in 7 out of 11 odour descriptors, in 7 out of 10 flavour descriptors, in 3 out of 3 appearance descriptors and in 4 out of 4 texture descriptors. A post-hoc, Bonferroni t-test revealed that many wheat varieties are significantly different from each other in odour and flavour profiles. Using Principal Component analysis, a distribution trend of the wheat samples was observed with ancient wheat species, landraces and older cultivars of bread wheat where dominated by descriptors of oat porridge and bulgur, while more recent cultivars were described by descriptors of wild rice, cooked malt, bitter, cocoa, vanilla, sweet and the Danish speciality “øllebrød”. Correlations between sensory descriptors showed that grain darkness and hardness were positively correlated with descriptors for cocoa, cooked malt and øllebrød; meanwhile, bulgur correlated negatively. Bitter flavour positively correlated to dark appearance. These results may be useful to future plant breeding efforts.