CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE FRANKFURTERS1

Consumers want meat products that are healthful and affordable. However, consumers will repurchase a product only if it tastes good. Consumers identified reasons for purchasing frankfurters and evaluated overall acceptability of 10 commercially available frankfurters. Consumers listed “taste” as the most important factor when purchasing frankfurters; only 16% of the consumers indicated that nutrition/health was the most important criterion. Nineteen consumer-perceived sensory and liking attributes were measured for the frankfurters in this study. The intensities of the attributes ranged from low to moderately high. All the frankfurters scored in the low to moderate range for overall acceptability. Most of the scores for liking of individual attributes correlated highly with overall liking, indicating that many of the questions relating to attribute liking could be eliminated.     

DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF ORAL PUNGENCY1

Pungent spices are well-recognized for their aromatic and pungent nature; however, relatively little is known about their pungent or ‘burning’ responses. Therefore, this research was undertaken to characterize oral pungency of the principal irritants or red pepper (capsaicin), black pepper (piperine), cinnamon (cinnamaldehyde), cumin (cuminaldehyde), cloves (eugenol), ginger (ginger oleoresin), and alcohol (ethanol). These compounds were evaluated for four pungent qualities (burning, tingling, numbing, overall), two temporal qualities (lag time, overall duration), and three spatial qualities (longitudinal location, lateral location, localized/diffuse). The pungency of cinnamaldehyde was primarily burning and tingling. It had a quick onset and rapid decay. The pungency of eugenol had a long-lasting, predominantly numbing effect. The pungency piperine, capsaicin and ginger were primarily burning, but had different temporal and spatial responses. The pungency of ethanol was most diffuse in nature, with some burning and tingling sensations. It had the shortest perceived onset and overall duration. The pungency of cuminaldehyde was equally burning, tingling and numbing.     

OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESSING OF PEANUT BEVERAGE1

Peanut beverages were prepared and homogenized at 2000, 4000, and 6000 psi and processed at 100°C for 10, 15, and 20 min and at 121°C for 5, 10, and 15 min. Sensory analysis, gas chromatographic (GC) analysis, and viscosity measurements were performed on the products. Sulfur aromatic was found sufficient to discriminate between samples processed at 100°C whereas sulfur aromatic, cooked peanut flavor, and bitterness provided the most efficient combination for discriminating between samples processed at 121°C. Processing time had a more significant effect on the sensory attributes of products. Optimum conditions for processing were found to be at homogenization pressure > 3100 psi and process time > 16 min at a processing temperature of 100°C. No sensory characteristic of the peanut beverage correlated with the instrumental analyses done.