Journal of Texture Studies ISSN 0022-4901

TEXTURE PROFILE OF HERBAL GEL AFFECTED BY INSTRUMENTAL PARAMETERS AND CORRELATIONS OF INSTRUMENTAL AND SENSORY EVALUATION
jtxs_289 1..10

SHANSHAN CUI, KAI YU, ZHUOYAN HU and GUOJING WEI

College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China

KEYWORDS Herbal gel, instrumental parameters, sensory correlations, texture prole analysis
1 Corresponding author. TEL: 8620-85280268; FAX: 8620-85280271; EMAIL: zyhu@scau.edu.cn

ABSTRACT
Herbal gel is a kind of traditional Chinese food. The study is to set up an instrumental texture assessment based on texture prole analysis (TPA) by (1) studying effect of texture analyzer operation condition including crosshead speed and plunger penetration degree on TPA result and (2) correlating instrument TPA to sensory TPA. A standard interval rating scale composed of foods available in the region was established for sensory TPA evaluation. The results indicate that crosshead speed and plunger penetration degree exhibited different effect on the test results according to target texture attributes. Signicant correlations were presented for hardness, cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness, respectively, when the testing conditions of crosshead speed at 2.5 mm/s with penetration degree of 30% or 60%, 2 mm/s with 30%, 1.5 mm/s with 5060% or 1 mm/s with 3050% were used. For efciency, crosshead speed of 2.5 mm/s with penetration degree of 60% for TPA is recommended for industrial practice.

Accepted for Publication January 17, 2011 doi:10.1111/j.1745-4603.2011.00289.x

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Herbal gel is an ethnic Chinese herbal food which has enjoyed great popularity in southern part of China for a long time. The industrialized version of the traditional herbal gels has been available in the market. Being a gel food, texture is the most important quality feature of herbal gel. Due to the requirement of quality control in mass production, a standardized procedure for texture measurement needs to be set up. This research reveals inuence of instrument operating condition on the texture measurement result, and correlation between instrumental and sensory methods of herbal gel texture evaluation, therefore provides a reference for setting up quality control procedure for the industry.

INTRODUCTION
Herbal gel, which is normally called guiling gel in China, is a kind of gel product made from herbal ingredients including tortoise plastron, Smilax glabra, dandelion, Lonicera japonica, etc. According to traditional Chinese medicine, the healthmaintaining benets of herbal gel, which are derived from the bioactive components like polysaccharides and active amino acids in the ingredients, have long been recognized as capable of heat cleaning, detoxifying, nourishing the kidney, loosening bowel to relieve constipation and regulating lipid and glucose in blood. Due to the health benet and texture propJournal of Texture Studies (2011) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

erty, it is widely consumed in southern part of China. The popularity of herbal gel led to industrialization of its production to meet increasing market demand. The requirement of quality consistency in food industry calls for a standard quality control procedure based on an objective evaluation of herbal gel. Being a type of gel food, texture property is an important sensory attribute affecting acceptance of consumers. Sensory texture prole analysis employs trained panelists to describe and provide quantitative measures of the texture attributes of given foods. This is applied using standard rating scales, which provide quantitative evaluation of the
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mechanical and other parameters of texture (Szczesniak et al. 1963; Civille and Szczesniak 1973; Bourne et al. 1975; Szczesniak 1998; Otegbayo et al. 2005). It does not only point out differences in specic textural characteristics such as cohesiveness, adhesiveness and springiness, but also shows whether the sample has more or less of a given characteristic than another sample and to what degree quantitatively (Szczesniak et al. 1963). There are several types of standard rating scales for measuring one mechanical characteristic of a certain given food. These published standard rating scales are based on using reference foods common in areas where the researchers carried out the study (Otegbayo et al. 2005), and these reference foods are not universal and some are not readily available in China. Therefore, it is in need to revise the standard reference scales based on foods that are available in China and familiar for the panelists, but published study has yet to be found on such modied rating scales. Texture prole analysis (TPA) was rst developed for the General Foods Texturometer (Szczesniak 1963) and later adapted to the Instron Universal Testing Machine (IUTM) by Bourne (1968). The IUTM has been used to generate the textural proles of Chinese traditional foods such as tofu and moon cake (Yuan and Chang 2007; Jia et al. 2008). However, study on textural characteristics of herbal gel reported has not been reported. Both sensory evaluation techniques and instrumental measurements are used in food texture research to assess texture parameters. Correlations are generally used to assess the relationship between the instrumental measurement and sensory perception in order to predict consumer responses or evaluate quality control tools or parameters (Szczesniak 1987). Meullent and Gross (1999) suggested sensory perception of textural attributes such as hardness, cohesiveness and fracturability for 24 commercial food samples can be predicted using an instrumental test featuring a single compression cycle. Mehinagic et al. (2004) investigated the possibility of predicting the sensory perceptions of apple texture by instrumentally measured parameters and found that parameters by penetrometry and compression were highly correlated with sensory textural attributes. The testing condition may inuence the result of TPA. Alvarez et al. (2002) studied the inuence of the degree of compression at different deformation rates on the textural parameters of TPA of cylindrical samples of potato and apple tissues. Using a starch-glycerol gel as a model system, Rosenthal (2010) reported the dramatic impact of both speed of compression and percentage compression on measured parameters. In an earlier view with particular reference to gelled systems, Pons and Fiszman (1996) expressed a similar view that testing conditions may inuence the TPA results. Therefore, this study focused on how selected operation conditions affected instrumental textural properties of ve
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different concentrations of herbal gel, and correlation between the instrumental results and the sensory texture data.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Using the same brand of herbal gel powder (Sanqian Health Beverage Company, Guangxi, China) from the local supermarket as raw material, ve concentrations of herbal gel were prepared by adjusting the proportion between powder and water used for dissolving the powder.

Sample Preparation
In terms of the proportion of powder to water as 1:20, 1:30, 1:40, 1:50 and 1:60 by weight, herbal gel powder was dissolved in water at 60C and the total volume of each sample prepared was 1 L. After homogenization for 90 s using a homogenizer (Ultra-Turrax, IKA-T18, Staufen, Germany, speed at 8,000 r/ min), the mixture was placed in the water bath at 85C for 20 min and then heated up to boil. 25 mL sample was transferred to a 1-ounce mold (equivalent to 28.4 mL). Samples were molded into truncated cones in plastic containers (diameter of the base is 3.6 cm, the diameter of the top is 4.0 cm and the height is 2.1 cm). After all the samples cooled down, they were stored at 4C for 24 h until further measurement. Herbal gel samples would be tested after 1 h for their temperature equilibration to room temperature at about 25C.

Instrumental TPA
The instrument used was a Texture Analyzer TA-500 (LloydInstruments Co. Ltd, Hampshire, U.K.), equipped with an external sensor to lower the maximal measurement limit from 500 N to 50 N in order to improve the accuracy of measurement. The plunger used was a cylinder probe with a diameter of 10 mm and a smooth surface. The tested herbal gel samples were removed from the plastic molds and placed on the test platform. The textural proles of herbal gel samples at room temperature were characterized using four crosshead speeds (1 mm/s, 1.5 mm/s, 2 mm/s and 2.5 mm/s) and four degree of penetrations (30%, 40%, 50% and 60%). Parameters corresponding to sensory attributes were obtained from the curves. Hardness was the maximum load, expressed in N, applied to the samples during the rst compression. Cohesiveness was the ratio of the area under the curve for the second compression to that under the curve for the rst compression. Springiness was calculated by the operation software of the texture analyzer, which expressed as the ratio of the distance of detected height of sample on the second compression to that of the original compression. Chewiness (hardness springiness cohesiveness) was also calculated by the operation software with the original unit as
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TABLE 1. TEXTURE ATTRIBUTES AND FOOD REFERENCES Texture attributes Hardness Intensity scale 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4 Comparable samples* Cream cheese Boiled egg white Frankfurter, 5 min Cheese Olive Corn bread Cheese, American White bread Soft Pretzel Cream cheese Frankfurter, 5 min Fruit candy Gelatin Rye bread Frankfurter Gumdrop Steak, 10 min Modied samples (descriptor) Condensed milk Soft tofu Pork sausage Chicken sausage Fresh cucumber Fresh carrot Peanut-butter biscuit Water chestnut cake Chicken sausage Green raisins Gum drops Condensed milk Cotton candy Jelly Water chestnut cake Pearl gum drops Condensed milk Jelly Sliced bread Pork sausage Chicken sausage Manufacturer Nestl (Qingdao) Qikang Ltd. Shuanghui Industry Co. Shuanghui Industry Co. Xufuji Food Co. Qikang Ltd. Shuanghui Industry Co. Yimin Foods Co. Wangwang Food Co. Nestl(Qingdao) Senheyyuan food Co. Jinwa Food Co. Qikang Ltd. Qikang Ltd. Nestl (Qingdao) Jinwa Food Co. Haodangjia super market Shuanghui Industry Co. Shuanghui Industry Co. Sample size 2.5 mL 1 slice 1-cm slice 1-cm slice 1-cm slice 1 piece 1-cm3 cube 1-cm slice 1 piece 1 piece 2.5 mL 1 piece 1 piece 1-cm3 cube 1 cube 2.5 mL 1 piece 1-cm2 square 1-cm slice 1-cm slice

Cohesiveness

Springiness

Chewiness

* Quoted from GB/T 16860-1996 (a national ofcial standard published in China equivalent to ISO 11036:1994).

kgfmm, and then the unit was converted as Nmm, which is the international standard unit. Each instrumental mechanical parameter condition was repeated for eight times.

Sensory TPA
Twenty junior students from the College of Food Sciences at South China Agricultural University were trained following the guideline of GB/T 16860-1996 (a national ofcial standard published in China equivalent to ISO 11036:1994). This guideline was a translated version from the ISO standard without any modication. Panel training was carried out in a 6-week period (twice at different days per week) for understanding texture characteristics of hardness, cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness. The denitions for the sensory texture attributes were those from Szczesniak (1963) and Munoz et al. (1986):Hardness was the force required to bite completely through the sample when placed between molars; cohesiveness was dened as the amount of deformation undergone by a material before rupture when biting completely through the samples using molars; springiness was dened as the degree or rate at which the sample returns to its original size/shape after partial compression between the tongue and palate; the denition of chewiness was the total amount of work necessary to chew a sample to a state ready for swallow. During training, panel candidates developed modied rating scales suitable for herbal gels textural characteristic (Table 1) by using standard scales from GB/T 16860-1996 as
Journal of Texture Studies (2011) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

an original version. The types of food in the modied rating scales were based on the availability of food in the local region of this study. The panel candidates rst evaluated the reference food in the original version and discussed which products were not suitable in the context of China. Then, alternatives for unsuitable reference foods were suggested and evaluated. Decisions on the modied rating scales were nalized by agreement of panel candidates. After training, a series of screening tests following the guidelines and criteria described by Bourne (2002) were performed and seven nal panelists were selected based on the performance in the screening tests. During the formal test, samples in 1-ounce plastic containers were presented to the panelists at room temperature (about 25C) in partitioned booths under white light condition. The samples were presented in a randomized order and each sample was assigned with a three-digit number. The panelists rinsed between samples, and scored using a continuous rating scale with the range as 05 for hardness and 04 for cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness. Each test sample was presented in duplicate at each single session during the formal test. The sample evaluations were repeated at another day in the same week, which means each panelist performed four replicate assessments per sample.

Statistical Analysis
Data were analyzed using the SAS statistical software (Version 9.1.3, SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC). Differences among
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Crosshead speed(mm/s) Samples 1:20 1:30 1:40 1:50 1:60 2.5 26.008 14.171 8.867 6.600 4.860 0.325Aa* 0.323Ba 0.164Ca 0.166Da 0.169Ea 2 25.931 14.501 8.657 6.305 4.882 0.521Aa 0.250Bab 0.047Ca 0.098Da 0.094Ea 1.5 25.296 14.210 8.651 6.411 4.824 0.182Aa 0.277Bab 0.056Ca 0.096Da 0.116Ea 1 21.924 13.390 8.574 5.764 4.314 0.188Ab 0.289Bb 0.086Ca 0.050Db 0.086Ea

TABLE 2. HARDNESS (N) OF HERBAL GEL AS AFFECTED BY CROSSHEAD SPEED (WITH 60% PLUNGER PENETRATION)

* Means followed by different capital letters (A, B, C . . .) in the same column indicate signicant differences among herbal gel samples with different concentrations in terms of speed at P 0.05. Means followed by different lower case letters (a, b, c . . .) in the same row indicate signicant differences among different speeds for each concentration at P 0.05.

results of different treatments were evaluated by Duncan multiple range difference test at P 0.05. The correlations between instrumental and sensory attributes of herbal gel were determined by Pearsons correlation coefcient. The data of nal sensory attributes were averaged before correlating with the instrumental data. Standard errors of results were stated as error bars and +/- values.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Effect of Crosshead Speed
Table 2 presents the hardness (N) of ve herbal gel samples with different proportion between herbal gel powder and water and the effect of crosshead speed with 60% plunger penetration on the test result of hardness. The average hardness value decreased with the reduction of the concentration of samples. Signicant differences among herbal gel samples were found among different concentrations under each testing speed (P 0.05). Table 2 shows signicant difference of hardness between the testing condition of 1 mm/s and other testing conditions under the sample concentration of 1:20 and 1:50; also, a signicant difference was found between testing condition at 1 mm/s and 2.5 mm/s for the 1:30 gel. In

the case of the concentration of 1:40 and 1:60, hardness value indicated no signicant difference at different crosshead speeds. Figures 13 show the effect of crosshead speeds on cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness of herbal gel samples with different concentrations under 60% plunger penetration. Cohesiveness describes the degree to which particles of a sample stick together. Fig. 1 shows that although the testing values of 1:60 were slightly higher than 1:50 from 1 mm/s to 2.5 mm/s, there were no signicant differences between them under the same speed. For samples at the concentration of 1:20, 1:30, 1:40 and 1:50, the cohesiveness values were affected by the crosshead speed with signicant but inconsistent difference. Moreover, cohesiveness difference of 1:60 was not signicant. In general, the result of cohesiveness decreased with decreasing sample concentration. The average springiness value decreased corresponding to the decrease of the concentration of samples (see Fig. 2). Compared to hardness, crosshead speed had less effect on springiness values, and difference among samples with different concentrations was inconsistent. Considering the result of the Duncan test, crosshead speed did not affect the value of springiness among samples at the same concentrations of 1:40, 1:50 and 1:60.

FIG. 1. EFFECT OF CROSSHEAD SPEED ON COHESIVENESS (WITH 60% PLUNGER PENETRATION)

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FIG. 2. EFFECT OF CROSSHEAD SPEED ON SPRINGINESS (WITH 60% PLUNGER PENETRATION)

Figure 3 shows the effect of crosshead speed on chewiness. There were signicant differences among samples with concentrations at 1:20, 1:30 and 1:40 under all testing speed. Moreover, at the same crosshead speed condition, difference between samples of 1:50 and 1:60 was not signicant except for 2.5 mm/s. Results from the above studies indicate that crosshead speed exerted inconsistent effect on each texture attributes. In a review of TPA in gelled systems by Pons and Fiszman (1996), they observed that there is a general agreement that increasing the speed of compression leads to an increase in the hardness, and concluded that the slower the speed of compression, the more time the sample has to relax and dissipate the applied force. Moreover, Rosenthal (2010) performed a study using a starch-glycerol gel with the compression speeds from 0.1 to 10 mm/s, and the results indicated a logarithmic relationship between compression speeds from 0.1 to 10 m/s and hardness, cohesiveness, corrected cohesiveness and adhesiveness. For others foods, Thybo et al. (2000) performed uniaxial compression tests on 10 cooked potato cultivars at speeds ranging from 20 to 1,000 mm/min and found that all sensory attributes, except for adhesiveness, were related to uniaxial

compression by correlation coefcients of 0.750.92, since adhesiveness is a mechanical mouthfeel parameter not measurable in one uniaxial compression cycle. Yu et al. (2006) reported that for the hardness of litchi, there was a signicant difference between the two test groups of crosshead speed below 100 mm/min and above 200 mm/min. The crosshead speed from 50400 mm/min did not signicantly affect the hardness result of olive (He et al. 2009). Yuan and Chang (2007) performed a study on the effects of crosshead speeds (20, 60, 100 and 200 mm/min) on the springiness, cohesiveness, fracturability and gumminess of no-skin tofu, and stated that speeds 20 to 100 mm/min were suitable and 100 mm/min was recommended for tofu TPA. The speeds 1 mm/s and 2.5 mm/s (equal to 60 mm/min and 150 mm/min, respectively) were more suitable for measuring samples textural proles. According to Rosenthal (2010), once the speed of compression is in excess of about 2 mm/s (equal to 120 mm/ min), increases in speed of compression make little difference to hardness,and therefore,care should be taken in selecting the speed of compression, which should be equal or greater than 2 mm/s for the gel system. Considering the time-saving factor in the instrumental operation, the crosshead speed of 2.5 mm/s is recommend for herbal gel prole analysis.

FIG. 3. EFFECT OF CROSSHEAD SPEED ON CHEWINESS (WITH 60% PLUNGER PENETRATION)

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Penetration (%) Samples 1:20 1:30 1:40 1:50 1:60 30% 9.492 6.707 3.391 3.205 1.789 0.198Ac* 0.130Bd 0.025Cd 0.056Cc 0.073Dd 40% 17.617 11.421 5.712 5.544 2.980 0.346Ab 0.251Bc 0.128Cc 0.151Cb 0.154Dc 50% 25.780 12.802 8.365 5.958 4.011 0.530Aa 0.475Bb 0.107Cb 0.162Db 0.162Eb 60% 26.008 14.171 8.867 6.600 4.860 0.325Aa 0.323Ba 0.164Ca 0.166Da 0.169Ea

TABLE 3. HARDNESS (N) OF HERBAL GEL AS AFFECTED BY PLUNGER PENETRATION (WITH CROSSHEAD SPEED OF 2.5 mm/s)

* Means followed by different capital letters (A, B, C . . .) in the same column indicate signicant differences among herbal gel samples with different concentration in terms of penetration at P 0.05. Means followed by different lower case letters (a, b, c . . .) in the same row indicate signicant differences among different penetrations for each concentration at P 0.05.

Effect of the Degree of Plunger Penetration

From Tables 36, the results of the effect of penetration at 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% with crosshead speed 2.5 mm/s are reported. As can be seen in Table 3, the effect of penetration on hardness was signicant when samples had the same concentration except at the penetration of 50% and 60% for samples of 1:20 and 40% and 50% for samples of 1:50. The hardness value increased with deeper penetration. From the TPA curve, hardness is dened as the peak force during the rst compression of the sample; the resistance force against the plunger increased with the increase of the deformation before its fracture, which led to higher hardness value of herbal gel samples with same concentration during the

testing course. All degrees of penetration discriminated all samples well on the basis of hardness. Compared to hardness, penetration had less effect on cohesiveness values at lower concentration (see Table 4). Signicant differences affected by penetration among samples were similar for all concentrations except 1:20. Overall, cohesiveness value decreased with increasing test penetration for all sample concentrations except the 1:40 sample at penetration of 40% and 50%. This result can be explained by the fact that as the penetration increased the force impact on the sample was greater to break up the body so that ability to withstand the second deformation was weaker. Moreover, there were fewer signicant differences between samples at the 30% penetration compared to other testing penetrations.

Penetration (%) Samples 1:20 1:30 1:40 1:50 1:60 30% 0.557 0.375 0.344 0.347 0.341 0.042Aa* 0.018Ba 0.036Ba 0.016Ba 0.014Ba 40% 0.397 0.321 0.232 0.173 0.257 0.011Ab 0.021Bb 0.018CDb 0.010Db 0.033Cb 50% 0.325 0.295 0.250 0.152 0.149 0.014Ac 0.011ABb 0.026Bb 0.005Cbc 0.019Cc 60% 0.240 0.200 0.185 0.136 0.144 0.005Ad 0.006Bc 0.010Bb 0.008Cc 0.011Cc

TABLE 4. COHESIVENESS OF HERBAL GEL AS AFFECTED BY PLUNGER PENETRATION (WITH CROSSHEAD SPEED OF 2.5 mm/s)

* Means followed by different capital letters (A, B, C . . .) in the same column indicate signicant differences among herbal gel samples with different concentration in terms of penetration at P 0.05. Means followed by different lower case letters (a, b, c . . .) in the same row indicate signicant differences among different penetrations for each concentration at P 0.05.

Penetration (%) Samples 1:20 1:30 1:40 1:50 1:60 30% 0.901 0.896 0.847 0.852 0.797 0.008Ab* 0.012Ab 0.012Bb 0.014Ba 0.018Ca 40% 0.912 0.895 0.898 0.844 0.803 0.007Ab 0.008Ab 0.018Aa 0.016Ba 0.013Ba 50% 0.989 0.964 0.905 0.895 0.795 0.011Aa 0.020Aa 0.014Ba 0.026Ba 0.014Ca 60% 1.014 0.958 0.898 0.894 0.792 0.025Aa 0.015Aa 0.012Ba 0.018Ba 0.020Ca

TABLE 5. SPRINGINESS OF HERBAL GEL AS AFFECTED BY PLUNGER PENETRATION (WITH CROSSHEAD SPEED OF 2.5 mm/s)

* Means followed by different capital letters (A, B, C . . .) in the same column indicate signicant differences among herbal gel samples with different concentration in terms of penetration at P 0.05. Means followed by different lower case letters (a, b, c . . .) in the same row indicate signicant differences among different penetrations for each concentration at P 0.05.

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TABLE 6. CHEWINESS (Nmm) OF HERBAL GEL AS AFFECTED BY PLUNGER PENETRATION (WITH CROSSHEAD SPEED OF 2.5 mm/s)

Penetration (%) Samples 1:20 1:30 1:40 1:50 1:60 30% 31.563 12.943 6.031 4.310 1.491 0.235Ad* 0.051Bc 0.048Cb 0.029CDc 0.011Dc 40% 51.298 26.602 7.256 4.920 2.5198 0.179Ac 0.213Bab 0.061Cb 0.039CDbc 0.04Db 50% 81.207 24.012 15.617 5.844 2.978 0.212Aa 0.105Bb 0.124Ca 0.029Dab 0.021Dab 60% 70.205 29.572 13.825 6.374 3.286 0.117Ab 0.107Ba 0.088Ca 0.043Da 0.021Ea

* Means followed by different capital letters (A, B, C . . .) in the same column indicate signicant differences among herbal gel samples with different concentration in terms of penetration at P 0.05. Means followed by different lower case letters (a, b, c . . .) in the same row indicate signicant differences among different penetrations for each concentration at P 0.05.

The average results of springiness in Table 5 indicate that the plunger penetration did not exert signicant inuence on the lower concentration samples. For the sample of 1:20 and 1:30, results at higher penetration at 50% and 60% were signicantly higher than those at 30% and 40%. The springiness changed similarly among the samples under the same degree of deformation, that is, springiness increased with the increase of concentration. Table 6 shows the effect of penetration on the chewiness value of samples. Difference among each concentration was signicant at the penetration of 60%. This means that existing differences among samples would be more accurately reected by chewiness of herbal gel measured at this degree of deformation. In general, in order to obtain the brittle fracture peak, most studies working on fruits, vegetables and meats chose 7580% deformation; while for gel type systems, deformation levels between 2050% have commonly been applied (Pons and Fiszman 1996). Herbal gel is a polysaccharide gels which are reversible cold-setting gels, and the way in which cross links between individual chains are formed is different from polysaccharide to polysaccharide (Renard et al. 2006). But so far, the microstructure of herbal gels remains unclear; it is therefore interesting to explore further the effect of microstructure of herbal gel on the relationship between penetration depth and TPA results. Based on the studies above, signicant effects caused by the plunger penetration could be found in some attributes. The selection of operation condition should depend upon the purpose of the test. For this study, the purpose is to investigate the relationship between instrumental TPA and sensory TPA, which means that if the instrumental measurement process is to imitate the highly destructive process of mastication in the mouth, deformation values to break the gel systems must be reached (Pons and Fiszman 1996). In order to meet this end and reect the differences among samples with different concentrations clearly, both of 50% and 60% were suitable as operating condition of measurement, especially the penetration of 60%.
Journal of Texture Studies (2011) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Sensory Evaluation
The standard rating scales enabled the panelists to carry out quantitative evaluation of herbal gel. The use of local foods to serve as reference products of textural attributes enabled the panelists in this study to carry out the proper textural evaluation of the samples. Using familiar food as reference points made it easier for panelists to evaluate the proper intensity of texture attributes, which is in agreement with Szczesniak (1963) who pointed out that the original rating scales need not be strictly adhered to. The results of sensory scores for herbal gel samples are presented in Fig. 4. The sensory scores of four sensory texture attributes decreased in accordance with the decrease of concentrations. The attribute of cohesiveness was most difcult for the panelists to evaluate. At the samples with concentrations from 1:30 to 1:60, the sensory score of cohesiveness indicated no statistical difference.

Correlations between Instrumental and Sensory Data

Research carried out into developing instrumental measurements methods for food structure, which correlate with sensory perceived texture has generally been done with one of two aims in mind: (1) prediction of sensory texture attributes; (2) understanding sensory texture assessment (Wilkinson et al. 2000). For this study, the purpose is to examine whether instrumental texture parameters can predict the sensory texture perceived by the panelists. Table 7 indicates that there were signicant positive correlations between certain instrumental texture parameters and sensory texture attributes in the herbal gel samples. Hardness results obtained at all crosshead speeds and plunger penetrations were signicantly correlated with sensory hardness. These correlation coefcients were comparable to results reported in a previous study on tofu products (Yuan and Chang 2007). The correlation between sensory cohesiveness and its instrumental tested value was not statistically signicant (P > 0.05) under several
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FIG. 4. SENSORY SCORE OF HERBAL GEL SAMPLES *1 = low intensity and 4 = high intensity.

testing conditions. Since the panelists could not gure out the differences of cohesiveness among samples with low concentration clearly, the correlation between instrumental value and sensory became inconsistent, when signicant differences were presented by the instrumental texture proles in some cases. Sensory springiness and chewiness were signicantly correlated with their instrumental values. In addition, sensory springiness was highly correlated with instrumental springiness (P < 0.01) at the crosshead speed of 1.5 mm/s with the penetration of 30%, 40% and 60%. Since Szczesniak (1987) stated that the relevance of instrumental measurements relied on how well they would predict the sensory attributes, the correlation between instrument and sensory scores might be used to estimate whether the testing method and condition are proper for samples texture quality analysis. Gmbaro et al. (2002) pointed out the TPA of bread testing by specic conditions could reect sensory texture by the high correlations obtained. Otegbayo et al. (2007) indicated that TPA was an objective method for the

measurement of pounded yam depending on signicant correlations between its instrumental and sensory attributes. However, Thybo and Martens (1999) found that in their studies, the instrumental TPA parameters were not found to be relevant to replace the sensory evaluation of cooked potatoes. In a study on the texture relationships using both sensory TPA and instrumental TPA techniques to evaluate 21 food samples from a wide variety of foods, Meullenet et al. (1998) found that high linear correlations were found between sensory and instrumental TPA parameters for hardness and springiness, but no signicant correlations were found for cohesiveness and chewiness. In fact, as suggested by Barrangou et al. (2006), although TPA can, to some extend, provide an instrumental alternative to sensory analysis, the test of TPA are empirical in nature and provide no fundamental information on structurefunction relationships with regard to texture. Therefore, the efcacy of using instrumental TPA as an alternative to sensory analysis is more of an empirical nature and difcult to establish universal laws

Penetration (%) 30 30 30 30 40 40 40 40 50 50 50 50 60 60 60 60

Speed (mm/s) 2.5 2 1.5 1 2.5 2 1.5 1 2.5 2 1.5 1 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.05 and P

Hardness 0.957* 0.948* 0.945* 0.917* 0.947* 0.938* 0.938* 0.940* 0.916* 0.924* 0.934* 0.943* 0.925* 0.926* 0.928* 0.951*

Cohesiveness 0.948* 0.883* 0.808 0.964** 0.813 0.814 0.862 0.927* 0.856 0.775 0.921* 0.974** 0.923* 0.805 0.903* 0.820

Springiness 0.896* 0.929* 0.981** 0.933* 0.910* 0.927* 0.988** 0.957* 0.924* 0.978** 0.924* 0.934* 0.949* 0.911* 0.968** 0.953*

Chewiness 0.965** 0.960** 0.953* 0.960** 0.947* 0.951* 0.957* 0.959* 0.948* 0.960** 0.955* 0.957* 0.961** 0.957* 0.954* 0.964**

TABLE 7. CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS BETWEEN INSTRUMENTAL AND SENSORY TEXTURE ATTRIBUTES

*, ** Signicant at P

0.01, respectively.

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TEXTURE PROFILE OF HERBAL GEL

FIG. 5. CORRELATIONS BETWEEN INSTRUMENTAL AND SENSORY SCORES (CROSSHEAD SPEED AT 2.5 MM/S, PENETRATION DEPTH AS 60%)

regarding the correlation between sensory perception and instrumental test. Applicability of instrumental TPA to replace sensory evaluation largely depends on the target food categories and target texture attributes, so a case-by-case approach should be adopted. In order to allow the adaptability of the developed TPA method, it is important to use commercial products in studying the correlation between sensory and instrumental results of texture attribute analysis. However, this may remain a challenge for some products since the commercial samples may not be available to meet the variable levels required in the experiment design. For the case of herbal gel, commercial herbal gel products in powder form can be used to meet the requirement of experiment design by adjusting the water and powder ratio. The series of concentration allowed the applicability of results from this test to ready-to-eat herbal gel products. From the result of this correlation analysis, signicant correlations were presented between the instrumental and sensory attributes of hardness, cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness, when the testing conditions of crosshead speed at 2.5 mm/s with penetration degree of 30% or 60%, 2 mm/s with 30%, 1.5 mm/s with 50% or 60% or 1 mm/s with 3050% were used. This implied that the TPA could be used as an objective method for the measurement of textural qualities of herbal gel.

the study of crosshead speed and plunger penetration degree provided a basis for the selection of the condition of mechanical parameters in TPA testing. Correlation analyses between instrumental data and sensory scores offered a method to determine whether instrument TPA is in agreement with sensory evaluation. Combining these two factors with the intention of time saving, crosshead speed of 2.5 mm/s with penetration of 60% for TPA of herbal gel (correlation curves shown in Fig. 5) would be recommended for texture measurement in industrial quality control procedure.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The grant supports are from the 948 Project of Ministry of Agriculture of Peoples Republic of China (2006-G31), Special Project of Industry funded by the Ministry of Agriculture of Peoples Republic of China (nyhyzx 07-031), the Key Project of Guangdong Province of China (2006B20401010) and the president fund of SCAU (K07299). We would also like to thank the referees for their detailed suggestion on improving the manuscript.

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In this study, textural quality of herbal gel samples was measured based on instrumental and sensory TPA. Results from
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S. CUI ET AL.

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