The Use of Edible Flowers in Human Food: Sensory Analysis of Preparations

Abstract

Considering edible flower's various uses in culinary, health benefits, and its low consumption, is essential to evaluate the sensorial aspects of preparations with it to verify the acceptance of these ingredients. Were used three samples of salads with leaves and flowers, which were evaluated by thirty-five volunteers who analyzed it according to hedonic characteristics and indicated their preference. Attributes as color, texture, aroma and overall aspects, in all samples, obtained scores that characterized acceptance of the preparations, while attributes as flavor showed a higher number of rejection or indifference. Between the samples analyzed, the one that presented minor rejection over flavor was the sample with higher degree of irradiation, perhaps by present sweeter flavor, because of higher irradiation exposure. This study shows that population is receptive to consume edible flowers, but it needs to improve disclosure and alternative recipes to attract the consumers. 

Sensory Profile, Shelf Life, and Dynamics of Bioactive Compounds during Cold Storage of 17 Edible Flowers

“…In the present study, trained panelists have described the sensory profiles of 17 edible flower species. Sensory analyses or hedonistic evaluations concerning edible flowers are few; previous studies concerned garlic, pansies, borage, calendula, and nasturtium, among the others [8,27,29,[31][32][33][34][35][36]. Since sensory science is still evolving on these emergent food products, a common lexicon of organoleptic terminology was guaranteed by comparison with specific literature (Table 2), studying and preparing a sensory sheet with a reduced list of sensory descriptors to ease the judges' evaluation and to describe the essential traits of the samples.…”

“…Despite the importance of bioactive compounds in human nutrition, they are still of difficult sensory perception and further studies are needed to understand which compounds are responsible for the taste and aroma of flowers. The phytochemical profile of edible flowers is affected by environmental and agronomic conditions [105,106] and it is of major importance to standardize the cultivation of each species in order to obtain a uniform food produce not only in terms of appearance, but also in terms of sensory profile, both highly affecting consumer preferences [2,35,36]. This would lead to better satisfy consumers, which are almost unaware of flowers as a food product, but are curious and willing to eat them [2,8,14,27,[32][33][34][35].…”

“…Sensory science is a scientific discipline that concerns the presentation of a stimulus to subjects and then the evaluation of the subjects' response [30]. Studies on sensory profiles or aptitudes of consumers towards edible flowers are increasing [8,27,[31][32][33][34][35] but only a few were performed by trained panelists [29,36].…”

Phytonutritional Content and Aroma Profile Changes During Postharvest Storage of Edible Flowers

“…Nowadays, the crops with EFs are increasing because of their aromatic and healthy properties (Chen and Wei, 2017). Flowers are esthetically appreciated for their different colors (Kelley et al, 2001a(Kelley et al, ,b, 2002 and are characterized by sweet, sour, and spicy flavors and aroma (Benvenuti et al, 2016;Fernandes et al, 2018b;Simoni et al, 2018). From the nutritional point of view, EFs are safe because of the organic cultivation; they are healthy and rich in beneficial substances, including polyphenols (Lu et al, 2016;Fernandes et al, 2017), essential amino acids (Sotelo et al, 2007), minerals (Rop et al, 2012;Tokalıoglu, 2012;Grzeszczuk et al, 2018;Drava et al, 2020), polyunsaturated fatty acids (reviewed in Fernandes et al, 2018b), ascorbic acid (Grzeszczuk et al, 2016), vitamin E (Miguel et al, 2016;Pires et al, 2017;Fernandes et al, 2018b), and xantophylls (Fernandes et al, 2018b).…”