SENSORY EVALUATION OF MIXTURES OF MALTITOL OR ASPARTAME, SUCROSE AND AN ORANGE AROMA

The suitability of Beidler's mixture equation for mixtures of sucrose and maltitol as well as for mixtures of sucrose and aspartame was exam ined in the presence of an orange aroma. The mean scores for the attri bute sweet remained constant for each combination of sucrose and malti tol and for each combination of sucrose and aspartame. Therefore, Beid ler's mixture equation can be used to choose combinations of sucrose a nd maltitol and of sucrose and aspartame giving the same sweetness. Qu antitative descriptive analysis of different solutions indicated that the flavour profiles of sucrose and maltitol did not differ significan tly at a constant concentration of orange aroma. However, flavour prof iles of solutions with increasing aspartame concentrations (but consta nt aroma levels) showed significantly higher scores for the attributes sour, chemical and aftertaste. Addition of orange aroma provided the different solutions with a more distinct flavour. The mean scores for the attributes orange, sour, fruity and aftertaste increased significa ntly for most of the sucrose-maltitol mixtures. This effect of orange aroma was even more pronounced in solutions containing combinations of sucrose and aspartame. Further comments on the attribute aftertaste s howed similar terms for the different solutions, the most often mentio ned being orange, sour, fruity and chemical for solutions containing t he orange aroma. The aftertaste of solutions containing relatively mor e aspartame was mainly described as sweet and chemical.