Sensorial analysis of polysaccharide-gelled protein particle dispersions in relation to lubrication and viscosity properties

In this work polysaccharide-protein gel particle dispersions were studied to identify relation between sensorial responses and their bulk rheological and tribological properties. Sensory analysis was performed by a trained panel using QDA to evaluate distinct mouth-feel perception. Attributes such as powdery, slipperiness, stickiness, and filmy were then correlated to tribological and rheological data of these dispersions. Since thickness perception masked scores of other attributes, all samples were tuned to obtain the same score in sensorial thickness to minimize its influence. The experimental survey presented in this work revealed an interesting set of correlations. The friction coefficient showed a negative correlation with slipperiness, while with other attributes the established relation was below a significant level. Attributes, such as stickiness, sliminess and filmy, correlated with viscosity data of the dispersions within a wide range of shear rates. In addition, a direct relation was found between the powdery attribute and the size of particles present in the dispersions. Moreover, the hardness of these particles seemed to have a strong influence on the steepness of this latter relation. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.