Sensory texture of date fruits as a function of physicochemical properties and its use in date classification

Abstract

Eight descriptive sensory textural attributes of whole date fruit were evaluated by twenty trained panel members and correlated with sixteen physicochemical properties. All sensory parameters, except gumminess, significantly correlated (P<0.05) with pectin, crude fibre, and moisture content. In addition, sensory hardness, cohesiveness, elasticity, and resilience correlated significantly with length of whole fruit (P<0.05), sensory adhesiveness with glucose content (P<0.05), sensory chewiness with mass of whole fruit (P<0.05), and sensory gumminess with fructose, glucose, and total sugar content (P<0.10). Sweetness, however, correlated only with moisture content (P<0.05). CA and the biplot (i.e. including all products, their sensory texture and physicochemical attributes) generated through PCA recognized three groups of dates as hard-chewy, soft-(medium-chewy), and soft-(nonadhesive).