Sensory Evaluation of Meat Products 465they could reappraise their selection based on
previous product quality experience.
Fat is a major component of p â t é s, but in
the current climate there are concerns about
obesity, heart disease, cholesterol, and the
need to reduce fat in the diet. It would there-
fore be advantageous if some of the fat in
p â t é could be replaced without impinging on
eating quality. A study by Viana et al. (2005)
investigated the infl uence of using bovine
globin and plasma as fat replacers. Four ham
p â t é s were produced, a control containing
26.2% fat, and three other types, 10% globin,
10% plasma, and a combination of 5% globin
and 5% plasma that replaced 38.2% of the
total fat content.
Twenty - fi ve assessors rated their prefer-
ence on fi ve - point hedonic scales, where
1 = dislike and 5 = like very much, for color,
taste, aroma, and consistency. Results showed
that color was affected by treatment. The
control p â t é s were preferred over those treat-
ments with fat replacer. In terms of taste,
aroma, and consistency, there were no sig-
nifi cant differences attributable to the fat
replacer treatments. The conclusion was that
fat replacement by globin, plasma, or a com-
bination could be benefi cial in producing
quality ham p â t é s.Restructured Meats
It is widely known that texture is an impor-
tant attribute of any meat product. This is the
case with restructured steaks that can range
in texture from almost the original muscle
through what is almost a beef burger - type
product. In all cases, there are many different
systems that can produce a wide variety of
textural properties; these may be centered on
particle size and binding systems.
An essential requirement is the develop-
ment of a sensory analysis procedure that can
provide the tools to evaluate the properties of
restructured steaks. Berry and Civille (1986)
produced a very detailed procedure to evalu-
ate the texture of steaks that were made fromA 30 - attribute profi le was used in this
study, which included seven appearance
attributes, comprising brown, pink, cohesive,
size of fat pieces, size of lean pieces, pro-
portion of fat pieces among all pieces,
and proportion of pieces in the stuffi ng.
Thirteen fl avor attributes comprised bitter,
salty, sweet, alcohol, fat, liver, meat, onion,
pepper, seasoning, spicy, thickener, and
warmed over. Ten texture attributes com-
prised sliceability, cohesive, doughy, dry,
elastic, fat, fi rm, granular, heterogeneous,
and smooth.
A PCA plot of appearance variables of the
p â t é s showed that the fi rst two dimensions
accounted for 80.53% of the total variation.
The traditional p â t é s were browner and had
a higher proportion of fat pieces. The nontra-
ditional p â t é s were pinker, which was prob-
ably a result of nitrite being used in this
product.
A PCA plot of texture and fl avor attributes
showed that the fi rst two dimensions
accounted for 81% of the total variation.
Traditional p â t é s were drier, less smooth, and
less sweet than those p â t é s produced in a
nontraditional way. Traditional p â t é s also
were more elastic, more granular, stronger in
fat fl avor, and lower in onion fl avor.
These same p â t é s were also used to study
consumer expectations based on information
and preconceived knowledge about p â t é s. It
was found that consumers did not show a
preference for traditional p â t é s, although
when given information, it was shown that
the traditional process evoked a favorable
response to these products, which led to a
higher expectation of quality compared with
the nontraditional product, which generally
evoked a low expectation. Interestingly, the
overall liking for these products was not
changed signifi cantly. On eating, it was
shown that fl avor and texture had a major
impact on perceived quality. Consumers did
not completely assign their expectation
against actual product quality, and therefore
it is likely that in a normal retail situation,