Development of a Sensory Flavor Lexicon for Mushrooms and Subsequent Characterization of Fresh and Dried Mushrooms

Abstract

Mushrooms are a nutritious versatile ingredient in many food products. They are low in calories and have various potential medicinal properties as well. Surprisingly, little research on their descriptive sensory properties has been conducted. The objectives of this study were to a) establish a descriptive sensory flavor lexicon for the evaluation of fresh, dried, and powdered mushrooms and 2) use that lexicon to compare a selection of different mushrooms of various species and in fresh dried and powdered forms. A lexicon for describing mushroom was developed using a consensus profile method. A highly trained, descriptive sensory panel identified, defined, and referenced 27 flavor attributes for commercially available mushroom samples prepared as “meat” and broth. Attributes could be grouped in categories such as musty (dusty/papery, earthy/humus, earthy/damp, earthy/potato, fermented, leather (new), leather (old), mold/cheesy, moldy/damp, mushroomy), and other attributes such as fishy, shell fish, woody, nutty, brown, green, cardboard, burnt/ashy, potato, umami, protein (vegetable), yeasty, bitter, salty, sweet aromatics, sour, and astringent. Samples were then tested in three replications and mean values were compared statistically. In addition, principal component analysis was used to understand the characteristics of mushrooms evaluated. Dried mushrooms showed bitter, burnt, musty/dusty, astringent, old leather, and fresh mushroom characteristics and fresh mushroom showed umami, sweet, earthy/potato, earthy/damp, yeasty, and fermented. Mushrooms were grouped and differentiated in similar ways regardless of whether they were tested as broth or “meat”. Mushroom growers, product developers, chefs and other culinary professionals, sensory scientists, researchers, the food industry, and ultimately consumers will benefit from this lexicon describing a wide variety of mushroom flavor properties.

Flavor lexicon development (in English and Chinese) and descriptive analysis of Sichuan pepper

“…The attribute “earthy” was used to describe the musty, damp soil‐like character that occurs in many plant products that have been dried and perhaps stored. Such a term is a specific type of musty character that is quite different from other types of mustiness such as decaying vegetation or dry soil that also can be described as “earthy” (Chun, Chambers IV, & Han, 2020). In this study, all of the samples exhibited the musty character at low levels.…”

Generating New Snack Food Texture Ideas Using Sensory and Consumer Research Tools: A Case Study of the Japanese and South Korean Snack Food Markets

“…The descriptors list, definitions and reference standards are provided in Supplementary Table S1 . Similar methodology has been used in other recent studies for the sensory profiling of various foods, e.g., [ 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 82 , 83 ].…”

“…Sensory characteristics are measurable and can be manipulated, and therefore, characteristics obtained from a wide range of products can encourage the researcher to create a product with different and multiple sensory profiles [ 53 , 61 ]. Descriptive profiling methods have been used to profile many products including products such as bread [ 62 ], fresh and dried mushrooms [ 63 ] snacks and snack-like foods [ 64 ], potato varieties [ 65 ], mate tea [ 66 ], ground beef [ 67 ], and smoked food products [ 68 ]. Many sensory studies combined descriptive analysis results with consumer hedonics to determine why food products are liked by consumers [ 25 , 69 , 70 ].…”

Scenario Analysis of a Municipality’s Food Purchase to Simultaneously Improve Nutritional Quality and Lower Carbon Emission for Child-Care Centers

“…Compared with the plant-rich diet, the lacto-ovo vegetarian diet contains no meat or fish but includes more egg and dairy products, cheese, nuts, seeds, oats and plant-based protein-rich foods, including soy products (particularly tofu and other processed soy-based products). In addition, typically used products in vegetarian diets were added, such as mushrooms due to their aroma properties (e.g., rich in umami substances [52]) and quinoa, known to be rich in protein. It may be important to use processed/cooked mushrooms as they contain smaller amounts of phenylhydrazines than raw mushrooms [36].…”