RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN RHEOLOGY AND COMPOSITION OF CHEDDAR CHEESES ANDTEXTURE AS PERCEIVED BY CONSUMERS

Rheological and composition measurements used as industrial indices of textural quality in Cheddar cheeses were related to sensory data. obt ained by free choice profiling using an untrained panel. Procrustes an alysis of compositional and instrumental data on a group of 19 Cheddar s displaying a range of textural characteristics showed certain import ant Instron variables and compositional variables that discriminated b etween samples in terms of textural characteristics. However. neither analysis discriminated between the samples in the same way as the cons umers perceived texture. The second dimension of the sensory data disc riminated between samples in terms of mouthfeel, or tertiary textural properties, correlating with moisture content but not easily quantifia ble using force-deformation analysis. Sensory dimension 3 related to p erceived textural maturity. Composition parameters did not change sign ificantly with maturity of texture, but measures of elasticity and coh esiveness did correlate significantly.