Electronic Tongue and Sensory Evaluation for Sensing Apple Juice Taste Attributes

摘要

The objective of the work reported here was to determine perceived intensity of the taste attributes of commercial apple juice samples and modified juices by the application of the electronic tongue, with special respect to sweetness and sourness. Furthermore, the task was to determine the relationship between the results of sensory evaluation and electronic tongue measurement for apple juices and to predict definite taste attributes. In the sensory evaluation apple juice, apple taste is the most important attribute followed by sweet taste and sour taste. These sensory attributes have the highest discrimination power at a 5% significance level for distinguishing the samples. Principle component analysis and linear discriminant analysis were used to evaluate the results of electronic tongue measurement. Based on the first and third principle components (PC) the groups of the tested samples show a good separation. The position of the sample groups on these plots follow the tendency obtained by the sensory evaluation. PC1 follows the tendency of "apple taste" and PC3 follows the tendencies of "sweet taste" and "sour taste" evaluated by the sensory panel. The latter statement was confirmed by the modified apple juice test results. The potential of the electronic tongue to predict the sensory attributes of the apple juice samples was evaluated by partial least square models. The best and worst prediction capabilities were found for "apple taste" (r = 0.94, RMSEP = 6.65) and for "off taste" (r = 0.73, RMSEP = 9.64), respectively. Consequently, the application of modified apple juice samples mean considerable perspective for describing the perceived intensity of definite taste attributes.