AROMATIC CLASSIFICATION OF COMTE CHEESES

Since 1990, the flavor complexity of Comte cheese is described by trai ned sensory panels using a list of 91 attributes presented in a previo us paper. The procedure of profiling consists for each assessor to poi nt out those attributes that describe each cheese. On the basis of the sensory data (proportions of citation) of 99 Comte cheeses, a reduced list containing only 28 attributes was determined. These attributes a re considered herein and analysed by means of non standardised princip al component analysis. The first twelve principal component are subjec ted to a cluster analysis (Ward criterion). This leads to the definiti on of five groups of cheeses. A selection of 14 attributes was also pe rformed, considering their ability to discriminate at least one of the se groups according to Flash technique. Canonical discriminant analysi s was carried out on the 14 attributes and the five aromatic groups. T he outcomes of this analysis are depicted on a graphical display which clearly shows the relative positions of the groups. It is therefore p ossible to predict the aromatic group of a new sample (cheese) from th e data relative to the 14 sensory attributes. A leave one out cross-va lidation procedure indicates that this prediction performs fairly well (84% for Jacknife criterion).