CHEMICAL, PHYSICAL AND SENSORY ATTRIBUTES FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OFAN ITALIAN DRY-CURED SAUSAGE

This work was designed to characterize Feline salami, an Italian dry-c ured sausage. For this purpose, a wide range of chemical, physical and sensory parameters were studied in 29 samples. Seven chemical and phy sical variables were selected by using principal components analysis: namely, pH, NaCl/moisture, moisture/protein, soluble N/protein, lactic acid, elasticity index and sample luminosity (L). The first two prin cipal components were significant according to double-cross validation and accounted for 79% of variance. The seven-variable chemometric mod el shows that variability in the first principal component is determin ed by variables expressing the acidity and the extent of lactic fermen tation, while the second component is determined by variables expressi ng the degree of ripening and is related to the sensory scores maturat ion and hardness, and to salami age (p < 0.001). Sensory scores were e valuated by a multivariate method to verify the consonance among asses sors as to the different attributes. The semi-trained panel was conson ant and reliable for five of the nine sensory attributes evaluated. Th e predictive ability of the chemometric model for the sensory attribut es was assessed with cross-validation.