Flavor Lexicon for Sensory Descriptive Profiling of Different Rice Types

• Published in: Journal of food science 2010-05, Vol.75 (4), p.S199-S205
• Main Authors: Limpawattana, M, Shewfelt, R.L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acceptability; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Cereal and baking product industries; Covering; Female; flavor; flavor lexicon; Flavors; Food industries; Food quality; Food science; Foods; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heating; Humans; lexicon; Male; Middle Aged; multivariate; Oryza - chemistry; Oryza sativa; principal component analysis; Processors; Profiling; Quality Control; reference standards; Rice; scented rice; Seeds - chemistry; Sensation; sensory; sensory properties; Species Specificity; Statistics as Topic; Taste; Terminology as Topic; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0022-1147; 1750-3841
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2010.01577.x

Rice flavor is a significant factor in determining quality and consumer acceptability as exemplified by scented rice, which is highly favored and commands a price premium. Sensory descriptive analysis has primarily been performed to assess rice flavor characteristics, but these studies feature only a limited lexicon for characterizing specific flavors or the range of flavor types is limited. This study was undertaken to establish a descriptive lexicon with reference standards for describing the flavor properties of a broad spectrum of rice types and use the developed lexicon to characterize which sensory attributes are most important in rice flavor quality. A rice flavor lexicon consisting of 24 descriptive notes was developed and expanded by 8 trained sensory panelists to characterize the flavor of cooked rice differing in terms of forms, types, and specialty (n = 36). Of these 24 descriptive terms, 19 were aromatic notes and 5 were fundamental tastes and oral feeling factors. Eighteen aromatic terms were significantly present in most rice samples whereas some descriptors exhibited unique characteristics of a specific-rice type. Subsequent multivariate analysis indicated that 18 descriptive terms were required to fully understand the characteristics of rice flavor in greater details. This lexicon covered a wider range of rice samples than in the previous studies and will facilitate targeting the characteristic notes important to rice processors as well as producers.