Influences of fat, thickener and emulsifier contents on salad dressing: Static and dynamic sensory and rheological analyses

The effects of contents of fat, thickener and emulsifier in salad dressing were investigated. Twelve types of dressings were produced according to a f ull factorial design, whereby the fat content was set at three levels, the thickener and the emulsifier contents at vivo levels. The dressings were an alysed by a sensory panel, using both quantitative descriptive profiling an d time-intensity (TI) evaluation, and by instrumental/rheological measureme nts. The two sensory methods were related to each other and the instrumenta l results were related to tire sensory results. All design parameters had a significant influence on the properties of sala d dressing, mainly on texture and mouthfeel. Fat content was the most influ encing parameter. Inter-action effects were found and it can he concluded t hat the content of the emulsifier was less critical when the fat and thicke ner contents increased Dynamic and descriptive sensory analyses,ere mainly related to each other i n the fattiness attribute. There were strong relations between instrumental and sensory analysis according to rheological and texture attributes, /r/ greater than or equal to 0.7 (Pearson correlation coefficient)for most text ure attributes. (C) 2001 Academic Press.