Browsing by Subject "oatgurt"

Availability of plant-based food products and snack products has increased during the last years. In Finland, especially oat-based food products have been popular. Milk-based yogurts have been accompanied by fermented oat-based snack products, ‘oatgurts’. The aim of this study was to investigate texture and mouthfeel properties of commercial oatgurts and milk-based yogurts. Pleasantness of the mouthfeel and overall pleasantness were also studied. In addition, structure properties of the products were measured with instrumental methods. Sensory study of the products was conducted as a consumer study (n = 87) using a time-dependent method called Temporal Dominance of Sensations, TDS. TDS was used to study dominant sensations of mouthfeel properties (creamy, foamy, thick, thin, sticky and watery) during eating. Two milk-based yogurts with 2,5 % and 4,0 % of fat and five oat-based gurts were used as samples. Overall pleasantness and pleasantness of the mouthfeel were evaluated with a 7-point hedonic scale. Assessor’s demographic factors, innovativeness and usage frequency of plant-based yogurts were studied with the sensory study. With instrumental methods viscosities during steady state shear rates 10 s-1 and 50 s-1 were measured. In addition, flow curves, amplitude sweeps, frequency sweeps were conducted, and particle sizes of the products were measured. According to the results, milk-based products were scored more pleasant in the overall pleasantness and in the mouthfeel pleasantness. However, one of the gurts was statistically as pleasant in the mouthfeel as the milk-based yogurt with lower fat content (2,5 % of fat). Ethnic background of the assessors had an impact to the hedonic ratings of the gurts. Assessors with Finnish background (n = 68) evaluated the gurts more pleasant in the overall pleasantness and in the pleasantness of the mouthfeel. Innovativeness of the assessors had an impact to the overall pleasantness of the gurts but not to the pleasantness of the mouthfeel. According to TDS results, creaminess and thickness improved the hedonic ratings whereas wateriness and thinness had a negative effect on the hedonic ratings. According to the instrumental measurements, structures of the products were different. One of the gurts showed rheopectic behavior which is less common among food products. Other products were thixotropic. From the results it can be concluded that high viscosity of the products correlated positively with dominance ratings of thickness. To find reliable connections between sensory properties and instrumental measurements, more research must be done. There were differences in the mouthfeel properties of the milk- and oat-based products. Oatgurts and their mouthfeel properties have lot to be improved that their pleasantness would be equal to milk-based yogurts. In a future research, it would be good idea to find out what kind of qualities consumers want for oatgurts and whether milk-based yogurts are good reference products for oatgurts.