ITALIAN COPPA - SENSORY AND CHEMICAL CHAR ACTERIZATION

A sensory card was developed for the evaluation of coppa (an Italian, dry-cured meat product), and applied to 35 commerical samples. The sen sory data were then related to chemical parameters: using conventional variables (proximate composition, pH, proteolysis index etc...) a sat isfactory discrimination was obtained between samples rated as ''poor' ' and ''good''. The development of positive sensory properties for cop pa was shown to depend on manufacturing techniques as well as on exten ded maturing.