Sheep milk has a high nutritional value and high concentrations of proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins, as compared to the milks of other domestic species. The physicochemical and nutritional characteristics of sheep milk can be advantageous for the manufacture of products containing prebiotic ingredients and/or probiotic bacteria, which are major categories in the functional food market. Following this technological trend, this review will address the characteristics and advantages of sheep milk as a potentially functional food, as well as the development of sheep milk dairy products containing prebiotics and/or probiotics.

Dulce de leche samples available in the Brazilian market were submitted to sensory profiling by quantitative descriptive analysis and acceptance test, as well sensory evaluation using the just-about-right scale and purchase intent. External preference mapping and the ideal sensory characteristics of dulce de leche were determined. The results were also evaluated by principal component analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, partial least squares regression, artificial neural networks, and logistic regression. Overall, significant product acceptance was related to intermediate scores of the sensory attributes in the descriptive test, and this trend was observed even after consumer segmentation. The results obtained by sensometric techniques showed that optimizing an ideal dulce de leche from the sensory standpoint is a multidimensional process, with necessary adjustments on the appearance, aroma, taste, and texture attributes of the product for better consumer acceptance and purchase. The optimum dulce de leche was characterized by high scores for the attributes sweet taste, caramel taste, brightness, color, and caramel aroma in accordance with the preference mapping findings. In industrial terms, this means changing the parameters used in the thermal treatment and quantitative changes in the ingredients used in formulations.

We investigated the performance of multidimensional alignment analysis and multidimensional scaling on phi coefficient values to evaluate check-all-that-apply questionnaire data. We evaluated 6 dairy foods belonging to the category of requeijão cremoso processed cheese (traditional, with starch, or with starch and vegetable fat). We obtained sensory descriptors using trained assessors in descriptive analysis for comparison. A check-all-that-apply questionnaire used with 121 consumers (77 women and 44 men; 18 to 57 yr old) proved to be a suitable alternative for sensory profiling, providing descriptions similar to descriptive analysis and discriminating between products. Multidimensional alignment analysis and multidimensional scaling were efficient and logical approaches for obtaining a deeper understanding of the data, allowing us to clarify the relationships between sensory descriptors and products and contribute to optimizing the different formulations of requeijão cremoso.

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