Relations Between Rheological Properties, Saliva‐induced Structure Breakdown and Sensory Texture Attributes of Custards

Abstract

The relevance of initial rheological properties and mechanical and enzymatic structure breakdown in determining selected sensory texture attributes of custards was studied. The so-called structure breakdown cell was used to characterize saliva-induced breakdown, i.e., by monitoring digestion of starch by amylase from saliva. Based on rheological parameters, some attributes could be predicted well, while others more poorly or were not predicted. Predictable attributes were primarily determined by bulk properties; poorly and nonpredictable attributes originated from properties of the outer lowviscosity surface layers or were not related to rheological properties. Both mechanical and enzymatic breakdown were important for creaminess, thickness and melting. Enzymatic breakdown was the dominant mechanism involved in the perception of fattiness, roughness and stickiness but not heterogeneity. Creaminess was the only attribute that was also determined by initial rheological properties and mechanical and enzymatic breakdown. 5 Corresponding Journal of Texture Studies 38 (2007) 42-69. All Rights Reserved. © 2007, The Author(s) Journal compilation © 2007, Blackwell Publishing 42Custards displaying high creaminess ratings had high initial stiffness, the structure broke down at low stress and enzymatic breakdown was slow. Microstructural organization of starch plays a dominating role in defining rheological and breakdown behavior of custards and in this way determines creaminess to a high extent. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSBreakdown during eating is a complex process. In the work presented, breakdown of a semisolid food system is unravelled and linked to its microstructure and sensory perception. It is demonstrated that it is possible to reasonably predict sensory mouthfeel properties, especially the important attribute, creaminess, based on data from instrumental techniques. The knowledge obtained could be applied to high throughput screening of newly developed food products without the need of involving sensory panels. This will enable the food industry to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the design and control of sensory attributes throughout the food product development process. KEYWORDSCreaminess, custards, rheology, saliva-induced structure breakdown, sensory, starch microstructure 43 RHEOLOGY AND SENSORY TEXTURE ATTRIBUTES OF CUSTARDS 44 A.M. JANSSEN ET AL.

New functional fibre in milk puddings: Effect on sensory properties and consumers' acceptability

“…This increase in thickness could explain the decrease in creaminess and melting caused by the addition of HAMS. According to Janssen, Terpstra, de Wijk, and Prinz (2007) high creaminess is related to high initial stiffness and a relatively low stress necessary to start flow. A structure that is harder to break up appears to be less creamy.…”

Contribution of thermal, rheological and physical measurements to the determination of sensorially perceived quality of ice cream containing bulk sweeteners

“…The latter underlines that creaminess cannot be easily determined by macroscopic instrumental properties and more sophisticated measurements are needed to furnish an adequate estimation of creamy sensation as in the case of other dairy semi-solids (de Wijk et al, 2006a,b). Although, mixes rheological characteristics influenced the perception of greasiness and wateriness, they did not participate significantly on the perception of creaminess as it happens in the case of flavored custards (Janssen et al, 2007). Further point of interest is that creamy samples were well correlated with low UFW contents.…”

“…Creaminess, mouth-coating, tongue, lubrication, friction, coarseness, thickness are sensory attributes of paramount importance for the perceived quality of semi-solids dairy desserts. Dynamic rheological parameters, light scattering and spectroscopic techniques, friction determination, turbidometry have been successfully used for the investigation of the interrelationships of instrumental properties with the sensorial quality of dairy desserts and emulsions (de Wijk et al, 2006b;Janssen et al, 2007). However, although ice cream is among the most common semi-solid dairy desserts, still there is little information about the role of different instrumental measurements on the perception of flavor and texture attributes.…”

Understanding Food Structures

“…For soft-solid foods like mayonnaise and custard, it has been found (van Vliet et al, 2009) that rheological parameters characterizing structural breakdown in the mouth give the best correlation with scores of creaminess perception. While the word "creaminess" itself implies a strong association with the character of a high-fat dairy cream, it has been demonstrated (Janssen et al, 2007) that bulk rheology and structural breakdown behavior are more significant factors than oil/fat content in determining the perceived creaminess of a non-dairy starch-based custard. This is because the inferred creaminess appears to be inversely related to the extent of shear-induced enzymatic breakdown during oral processing.…”