FORMACIÓN DE MAESTROS Y MAESTRAS PARA EDUCAR EN LA IGUALDAD

The low consumer acceptance of sheep meats especially mutton has been attribute d to the flavou r a nd aroma of these meats (Batcher et al.. 1 969 ; Wong et a l . . 1 975 ; S i nk and Caporaso. 1 977; Hudson and Loxley. 1 983). Mutton is not only an unfamiliar meat but its flavour and aroma is also objectionable to the Thai people .

Although trimmed mutto n . with fat and con nective tissue removed. had been used i n all previous experiments. it was expected and supported by comments given by the p a nelists. that 'muttoniness' still perSisted in the meatballs. It was expected that some spices and ingredients which cou ld impart flavour would help disguise the strong and objectionable flavour and aroma of mutton and result in meatballs which were acceptable to the' Thai panelists.

This chapter discusses the selection of spices which helped in masking the strong flavour and aroma of mutton. The selected spices were then used together with salt, tapioca starch and sodium tripolyphosphate to study the effects of all the ingredients on the accepta bility of meatballs made from either u ntrimmed or trimmed mutton. The n the meatballs were made with the optimum levels of all ingredients and various proportions of mutton and t h ey were tested for acceptability or preference by the laboratory taste panel and a small co nsumer panel.

7.2 LITERATURE REVIEW

7.2. 1 of Mutton Flavour and Aroma

In recent years, attempts have been made by a number of researchers to mask t h e strong flavour and aroma of mutton (Hudson and Loxley, 1 983; Akatsuka. 1 984; Bartholomew and Osuala, 1 986) . Objectionable mutton flavour was apparently reduced by spicing and mutton products containing higher levels of pepper. garlic. fennel, paprika. appeared to b e more acceptable (Bartholomew and Osuala. 1 986).

Due to their roles as flavour and aroma enhancers. spices have long been used to flavour Thai foods, and therefore Thai food is always characterised by Western people as very spicy (Sinthavalai, 1 984). Spices like garlic, onion. pepper, coriander, fennel and s esame are normally used in preparation of Thai foods (Anon . • 1 97 0 ; S i nthavalai. 1 98 4) . I n

expected that these two spices would not be effective in concealing the strong flavou r and aroma of mutton. Therefore, onion, coriander, fennel and sesame were also selected (see descriptions of these spices in Appendix 7.1 ). The possible amounts of all six spices were chosen by consulting recipes for Thai foods (Anon., 1 970).

Spices not only act as odour and flavour e nhance rs but also furnish microbiol ogical advantages. Garlic exhibited antibacterial activities (Walton et al., 1 936; AI-Delaimy a nd AIi, 1 970; DeWit et al., 1 979), and antifungal activities (Tansey and Appleton, 1 975; Baron e and Tansey, 1 977; Moore and Atkins, 1 977) . O nion also exhibited antibacterial activities ( DeWit et al., 1 979) . Conner and Beuchat (1 984) found that essential oils of garlic and onion were inhibitory to thirteen food-spoilage and industrial yeasts. In addition , many spices were shown by a number of researchers to exhibit antioxidant activity. These spices were white pepper, coriander, and fennel (Chipault et al., 1 952) and black pepper and ginger (AI-Jalay et al. , 1 987) .

Spices could help to disguise the strong flavour and aroma of mutton. I n addition to their flavour and aroma enhancing roles, spices could possibly give antimicrobial and antioxidant

activities to the mutton-based meatballs.

7.2.2 Consumer Panel Evaluation of of a Product

Amerine et al. (1 965) stated that although members of a laboratory panel were consumers, their opinions and preferences mig ht not be representative of the g eneral popu latio n. Generally, the laboratory panel was selectively obtained, well trained and hypercritical as compared to the general consumer. The criteria used in a laboratory panel such as test­ booth conditio ns, coded containers and scoring methods were definitely not typical of normal conditions of food consumption. I n addition, the opinions of the laboratory panel were not influenced by such factors as packaging, advertising, ease of preparation, price or prestige, as the opinions of the general consumer might be.

Consu mers were untrained evaluators who based their judgement mainly on their own feelings and perceptions and, therefore, their impressions and judgement might be different from those of trained laboratory pane lists ( Pangborn and Russell, 1 976; Gatchalian , 1 98 1 ) . The communication bridge between the findings o f analytical laboratory panels and the co nsumer preference panels was very important (Gatchalian, 1 98 1 ) . A n u mber of researchers found that consumers generally agreed with laboratory findings in direction but not in magnitude (Miller et al. , 1 955; Simone et aI., 1 956).

Consumer panelling is probably the most frequently used method for obtaining consumer attitudes. In 1 981 , Anderson noted that consumer panels could be applied throughout the

full cou rse of the product development process. The author suggested a consume r panel size of 1 0-1 5 members for the later testing during product formulation before it was u sed in pilot plants trials. Earle (198 1 ) discussed selection and organisation of consumer panels. The a uthor indicated that the 20-30 member panel was used for initial discussion s and testing of product attributes du ring new product development, product reformulation and quality assurance programmes. Moskowitz (1 985) who has worked extensively in t h e area of sensory evaluation had also started using co nsumer panels for many different pu rposes; Le. screening of ingredients, developing and optimising concepts, optimising products for acceptance, cost and stability, and determining attributes of importance to consumers. Because of its simplicity and flexibility, the hedonic-rating scale could be recommended for use at the consumer level and the language it employed was easily u nderstood and the test required only brief and simple instructions (Amerine et a!., 1 965) . In addition, subjects could respond meani ngfully without previous experience, the data cou ld be handled by the statistics of variables and in contrast to other methods, within broad limits the result s were meani ngful for signifying gene ral levels of preference (Peryam and Pilgrim, 1 957) . The hedonic scale method was a rating scale method which could be used to measure the level of liking of foods (ASTM, 1 968; Moskowitz, 1 983).

Purchase behaviour represents a more complicated variation of hedonic reaction. People may purchase a food product that they do not really like because the product is cheaper than its competitor which they may like much more. Moskowitz ( 1 983) also stated that the researcher could not predict whether or not consumers would pu rchase the product by simple acceptance scales alone, as the tasters would often evaluate the product in isolation from real world stimulus conditions. Therefore, apart from the fact that consumers accept a food product, their willingness of purchasing is also an important criterion in test i ng the product.