Browsing by Author "Oksa, Vilma"

Abstract Licorice is traditionally made from sugar, molasses, water, wheat flour, and licorice extract. In the literature review, the focus was on the properties of quinoa, licorice extrusion, sensory and physical properties of licorice and the basis behind sensory evaluation and instrumental testing in product development. In the experimental part, gluten-free quinoa and rice licorice were made and their properties were studied with multiple sensory and instrumental measurements, and the self-made samples were also compared to commercial samples to see the possible differences between them. The hypothesis was that the changes in the recipes and process parameters would result in significant differences between the products. The sensory evaluations included a generic descriptive analysis with the first batch and two separate consumer tests with the two batches. The instrumental testing conducted of compression and extension tests with Instron and the determination of water activity. The data were analyzed with one- and three-way analyses of variance, as well as principal component analysis for the descriptive analysis. The manufacturing of the quinoa and rice licorice with the twin-screw extrusion was achieved. The generic descriptive analysis revealed that all the self-made samples were described similarly to each other, while the commercial gluten-free samples differed significantly from these. The quinoa licorice was seen sticky and not homogenous in appearance or texture, while the commercial samples were described as more homogenous and more intense in their taste. The consumer tests showed that both panels preferred the commercial samples over the self-made ones and that the quinoa licorice was preferred over the rice licorice. Commercial samples were seen as soft and chewy, while all the self-made samples from both tests were described as hard and grainy. The hypothesis was overruled since the quinoa licorice samples did not have significantly different properties despite the variation in the process parameters and ingredients. The study revealed that at least with these parameters there are no noticeable, significant differences in the sensory or physical properties of quinoa licorice. The commercial samples, however, remain significantly different from the self-made samples.