Yogurt is one of the most popular fermented dairy products worldwide, which plays an important role in the daily diet by providing nutrients and has gained consumers’ acceptance as a healthy food. In addition, yogurt has many health benefits, including improving lactose tolerance and other things related to probiotic bacteria. Textural and sensory characteristics are two important factors to evaluate the quality of the yogurt. Thickness parameters are measured using thickness profile analysis. Various parameters such as hardness, chewiness, gumminess, springiness, cohesiveness, and adhesiveness are usually measured.
In many cases, the evaluated sensory properties are presented but not properly defined. The use of specific definitions and references greatly increases the applicability and reproducibility of published results. The following table shows the sensory characteristics and sources used to evaluate unflavored and flavored sweetened yogurts.
Definition and evaluation method for sensory description in yogurt
The table below gives some sensory parameters for yogurt description, its definition, and its measurement scale in 0 and 10.
On the other hand, sensory characteristics (taste and texture/mouth feel) are very important for consumer acceptance. In this way, understanding and measuring the sensory properties of dairy products is very important. While sensory science is a relatively new field (founded around 1940), the importance of taste and texture to the consumer has existed since products were first traded and sold in the marketplace.
References:
Karagül‐Yüceer, Y. and Drake, M., 2013. Sensory analysis of yogurt. Manufacturing yogurt and fermented milks, pp.353-367. DOI: 1002/9781118481301
García‐Gómez, B., Romero‐Rodríguez, Á., Vázquez‐Odériz, L., Muñoz‐Ferreiro, N. and Vázquez, M., 2019. Sensory quality and consumer acceptance of skim yoghurt produced with transglutaminase at pilot plant scale. International Journal of Dairy Technology, 72(3), pp.388-394. DOI: 1111/1471-0307.12595
