Flavor lexicon and characteristics of artisan goat cheese from the United States

Abstract

The objective of this study was to further develop an existing lexicon for use in describing the flavor characteristics of a wide variety of artisan goat cheeses made in diverse geographic locations throughout of the United States. Highly trained sensory panelists reviewed published lexicons for cheese before establishing a lexicon of 39 flavor attributes to represent sensory characteristics for 47 artisan goat cheeses manufactured in different parts of the United States. Twenty‐eight attributes were present in a majority of samples and were able to describe most flavor characteristics. Other attributes were used occasionally to describe specific characteristics of certain cheeses. A large number of attributes were needed to describe flavor characteristics of cheese samples with more complex flavors (i.e., mold‐ripened samples). Samples with milder characteristics (chèvre‐style) needed a reduced number of terms and had lower intensities for most attributes. Feta‐style cheeses generally were more salty and cheddar‐style cheeses were mostly nutty, waxy, and sweet. Mold‐ripened cheeses had musty‐like characteristics and were more pungent and sharp. These attributes had higher intensities specifically for blue‐type cheeses. The goaty flavor attribute was higher for mold‐ripened cheeses but was characteristic of all the goat cheeses. Practical applications This study gathers previously developed flavor terms and combines them with new terms to describe the flavor characteristics of a broad variety of artisan cheeses made with goat's milk produced in different parts of the United States. This work can be a valuable resource for goat cheese producers. Any producer can use this study as a tool for learning, benchmarking, development, and quality control of goat cheese as it shows the types of flavors typical in a wide variety of goat cheeses.

Aroma and flavor characteristics of commercial Chinese traditional bacon from different geographical regions

“…A consensus method (Chambers, ) which was used for smoked flavor (Jaffe et al, ; Wang & Chambers, ; Wang, Chambers, & Kan, ) and a number of other products (Adhikari et al, ; Chambers, Lee, Chun, & Miller, ; Cherdchu, Chambers, & Suwonsichon, ; Di Donfrancesco, Koppel, & Chambers, ; Koppel & Chambers, ; Miller, Chambers, Jenkins, Lee, & Chambers, ; Pujchakarn, Suwonsichon, & Suwonsichon, ; Talavera & Chambers, ), was used for measuring aroma and flavor intensity. The panelists evaluated the bacon samples using a 0–15 point scale with 0.5 increments where 0 meant unperceived and 15 meant extremely strong.…”

Determination of a lexicon for the sensory flavor attributes of smoked food products

“…Every attribute in the lexicon has a definition and between one and three references. Many of the attributes (smoky, ashy, woody, musty/dusty, musty/earthy, burnt, pungent, petroleum‐like, bitter, metallic, and sour) are commonly used and already had definitions and references that were used in other published lexicons (e.g., Chambers IV et al, ; Retiveau et al, ; Talavera & Chambers, ). Some of those terms needed to be modified to better suit this lexicon, such as the overall smoky reference that was better defined by a different liquid smoke product and burnt, which needed a better defined process (based on peanuts and used in a coffee lexicon (Chambers IV et al, )) for creating the reference that produced a more consistent reference.…”

Sensory texture analysis of thickened liquids during ingestion

“…Each panelist had completed 120 hr of training and had a minimum of 2,000 hr of sensory testing experience on a wide range of products, including thickened beverages. The panel has been used to develop sensory lexicons and to evaluate a number of commercial and experimental products including research on thickened beverages (Matta et al, ), as well as other liquids such as soy sauce (Cherdchu & Chambers, ), coffee (Chambers et al, ), green tea (Lee, Chambers, & Chambers, ), and other products such as cheese (Talavera & Chambers, ). Kim and Lee () found that a texture lexicon developed by a similarly trained descriptive sensory panel in the United States was shown to be valid when translated into another language (Korean).…”