Sensory Characteristics and Consumer Acceptance of Frozen Cooked Rice by a Rapid Freezing Process Compared to Homemade and Aseptic Packaged Cooked Rice

Abstract

Descriptive analysis and consumer acceptance tests were conducted with frozen (FCR), homemade (HCR), and aseptic-packaged (ACR) cooked rice products from two cultivars–IM and SD. FCR was prepared using a rapid freezing process, which may provide consumers with a quality similar to that of HCR. The intensity of the flavors of roasted, glutinous rice, rice cake, and rice starch and the textures of glutinousness, moistness, chunkiness, adhesiveness, and squishiness were all greater in the FCR as compared to the HCR and ACR (p<0.05) in IM and SD cultivars. The differences in sensory characteristics between the FCR and ACR were larger than the equivalent differences between the FCR and HCR. Overall consumer acceptance ratings for FCR in overall aspect, appearance, aroma, and texture were not significantly different compared to those for HCR (p>0.05); however, in most cases these factors showed significant differences when compared with ACR (p<0.05). From partial least square regression analysis, cooked rice was positively related to sweet, transparency, glossiness, roasted, glutinousness, chunkiness, moistness, glutinous rice, adhesiveness, rice shape, rice starch, and squishiness attributes but negatively related to raw rice, old rice, old rice aroma, a particle feeling, off-aroma, white color, scatteredness, slickness, size of cooked rice, and firmness attributes.

Influence of Rice Varieties on Sensory Profile and Consumer Acceptance for Frozen-cooked Rice

“…Another interesting point for the frozen-cooked rice was glutinousness, which was considered a factor for disliking. The opposite result was found in aseptic-packaged cooked rice (Kwak et al, 2015) as well as in a cooked rice processing study (Kwak et al, 2013a), with glutinousness categorized as a driver of liking. The glutinousness perceived in the frozen-cooked rice might come from different physical properties in comparison with aseptic-packaged cooked rice or steamed rice.…”

“…Ilpum (IL) had small, round shaped rice kernels. The advantages of these varieties was that the consumer acceptance of frozen-cooked SI and IL rice were similar to home-cooked rice (Kwak et al, 2013a). Oryza sativa L. var.…”

“…The consumer preference pattern was identical to the mean consumer acceptance rating pattern. One interesting point from the mean consumer acceptance ratings and the biplot was that SD and IM have been used for frozen-cooked rice processing (Kwak et al, 2013a), but received lower consumer acceptance. On the other hand, CH and IL, which are consumed as steamed rice at home, had the highest consumer acceptance.…”

“…Frozen-cooked rice was prepared by Kwak's method (Kwak et al, 2013a). Briefly, polished rice (1000.0 g) was washed three times using tap water and then soaked in tap water for 80 min.…”

“…Quality and sensory characteristics of a rice variety (Juanbyeo) developed for aseptic-packaged cooked rice were reported in Korea (Oh et al, 2010). Three different processing methods for cooked rice -aseptic-packaged, steamed and frozen -were compared in terms of their sensory profiles and consumer acceptance, and showed similar consumer acceptability between home-made and frozen cooked rice (Kwak et al, 2013a). Kwak et al (2015b) recently reported that the drivers of liking for aseptic-packaged cooked rice were rice cake flavor, sweetness, roasted aroma and flavor, cohesiveness of mass, deformation and shininess.…”