The global market for bacon is undergoing significant transformation, with both plant-based and nitrite-free products emerging as leading trends. Within this context, this study compared the sensory characteristics of a range of commercially available plant-based, nitrite-free, dry-cured and brine-cured bacon rashers using a combination of Temporal Dominance of Sensations and Partial Napping (PN) with Ultra-Flash Profiling (UFP) techniques. The findings showed that plant-based bacon had a distinct sensory profile, indicating that the appearance, flavour and texture could influence future uptake of these products by consumers. Meat-based bacon exhibited attributes of "saltiness", "smoky" and "chewy", while "saltiness" presented the highest citation rates for brine-cured bacon. Curing technique (dry vs brine) influenced the temporal sensory profile of bacon, while nitrite removal had no significant impact. There were differences in dominance of "saltiness" between unsmoked brinecured and unsmoked nitrite-free samples, but these differences were not observed for their smoked counterparts. PN enabled assessors differentiate bacon based on appearance, while UFP proved valuable in explaining the nature of these differences. This study provides new information regarding the sensory profile of plant-based and nitrite-free bacon alternatives, and has implications for future product development efforts for healthier and more sustainable food products.
