The texture of a variety of French cheeses was studied by examining their compositional and mechanical parameters. The data obtained were correlated to those derived from a panel assessment of the sensory textural attributes of the samples. Statistical treatment of the results employing cluster analysis, analysis of variance, and redundancy analysis revealed that the most influential objective variables to characterize the cheese texture are the dry matter content and the resistance to force compression at 10% deformation of the initial sample height. These variables were highly correlated with sensory attributes such as hardness, brittleness, cohesiveness, and adhesiveness.
A range of French acid‐type fresh cheeses of various commercial brands was tested by a trained sensory panel which detected significant differences in thickness, smoothness and slipperiness. The cheeses exhibited thixotropic behaviour. The perceived thickness of the samples was highly correlated with the shear stress values obtained for a limited range of shear rates (30–80 S−1). The area of the hysteresis loop formed during the first shearing cycle of the samples over a wide range of shear rates (4.5–450 S−1) was negatively correlated to slipperiness. The correlation matrix showed that the sensory attributes were independent of the chemical composition of the products. Principal components analysis indicated the way the three sensory attributes were related to each other and to the rheological parameters.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.