Prediction of sensory texture quality of boiled potatoes from low-field H-1 NMR of raw potatoes. The role of chemical constituents

Texture is a sensory attribute of uppermost importance,fbr the preference o f potatoes. In an earlier study, it was shown that sensors, texture attribu tes of boiled potatoes could be predicted. to some extent, by partial least squares regression of relaxation curves obtained from raw potato samples u sing pulsed low-field H-1 NMR. The aim of the present study was to understa nd the chemical background for the low-field NMR prediction of the sensory texture attributes of potatoes. Correlations between low-field NMR relaxati on curves, sensory texture attributes and chemical constituents are present ed. It is, found that prediction of sensory texture quality of boiled potat oes from relaxation curves of raw potatoes is possible mainly because the N MR relaxation curves contain information on water content, which is inverse ly correlated to starch content. However, low field NMR seems to offer addi tional information, which is not included in the chemical variables like st arch content. Apparently, adhesiveness and springiness are slightly better described by loin-field NMR than by chemical descriptors. This indicates th at low-field NMR is able to probe certain mouth-feel variables due to its s ensitivity to the state of moisture in the sample, a parameter it is not po ssible to measure by any other instrumental technique.