Browsing by Author "Oduro, A.F."

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Optimization and Characterisation of a 3-Blend Plant Milk Beverage
(University of Ghana, 2018-07) Oduro, A.F.
Plant milk beverages have become a necessity as they serve as an alternative for people with lactose intolerance, cow milk allergy, vegetarians and people who want to avoid cholesterol. They have numerous health benefits but their consumption is limited by their poor sensory profiles. Soymilk is the most popular and most widely consumed plant milk beverage in the world. Using local ingredients for commercial production of plant milk in Ghana is advantageous as these raw materials are easily available and are affordable. Preliminary work used melon seeds, peanuts and coconut to formulate one, two and three blend plant milk beverages, but their sensory profiles suggested that they will be unappealing to consumers. The purpose of this work was to use a consumer led approach to optimize and characterize those plant milk beverages. A focus group discussion using target consumers was organized to confirm the selection of the three ingredients (melon seeds, peanuts and coconut) used for the initial plant milk beverages and to understand which sensory properties of plant milk are desirable to consumers. The plant milk beverages were optimized based on the outcome from the focus group discussions. After optimization, the 3-blend beverages were then characterized by sensory methods (consumer acceptability tests using Relative Preference Mapping (RPM) and the traditional 9-point hedonic scale in a Balanced Incomplete Block design (BIB) and physicochemical analysis (proximate composition, pH, titratable acidity, color, and viscosity). RPM was used to test liking for the optimized beverages as well as compare them to existing commercial dairy milk and plant milk beverages. Consumer test using BIB was used to understand the effect of the various ingredients on consumer acceptability. During the focus group discussions, only coconut met consumer expectations, peanuts was to be roasted instead of blanched and tiger nuts was recommended as a suitable ingredient to be added to the other ingredients. From the RPM, two of the 3-blend beverages containing peanuts, tiger nuts and coconuts milk had liking scores comparable to the dairy milk and commercial plant milk beverage. The results from the consumer test using BIB showed that peanuts and coconut milk were responsible for the acceptability of the blends. Melon seeds milk decreased liking and tiger nuts milk had a fairly neutral effect on liking. The protein content of the reformulated 3-blend beverages was in the range of 1.65±0.06%-3.51±0.02%, the fat content was from 4.09±0.05%-6.54±0.04%, the ash content was from 0.25±0.01%-0.51±0.07%, carbohydrates from 4.28±0.01%-7.26±0.01%, the L values were in the range of 75.91±0.13-85.54±0.50, the range for pH was 6.74±0.00-6.87±0.01 and that for titratable acidity was 0.83±0.01-2.05±0.00. The viscosity of the beverages was from 1163.55±7.42-1814.85±2.47 centipoise. Using consumer insight led to optimization of the plant milk beverages leading to acceptability comparable to an already accepted commercial plant beverage.
Sensory Acceptability and Proximate Composition of 3-Blend Plant-Based Dairy Alternatives
(Foods, 2021) Oduro, A.F.; Saalia, F.K.; Adjei, M.Y.B.
Limitations of plant-based dairy alternatives as sustainable foods are their relatively low protein content and low sensory appeal. In this study, we used a consumer-led product development approach to improve the sensory appeal of existing prototypes of 3-blend dairy alternatives produced from melon seeds, peanuts and coconut. We used Relative Preference Mapping (RPM) and consumer acceptance testing using the 9-point hedonic scale to respectively identify innovative flavours and deduce the effect of ingredient components on consumer sensory appeal. Mixture design was used as the formulation tool to obtain optimized prototypes of the 3-blend dairy alternatives. Proximate analysis of the new prototypes, instrumental color assessment and consumer testing provided a basis to select a sustainable 3-blend dairy alternative. This prototype had a relatively high protein content (2.16%), was considered innovative by target consumers and also had a moderate liking score (6.55 1.88) on the 9-point hedonic scale. Prototypes with higher protein content had low sensory appeal and were not considered innovative. Other prototypes with innovative sensory appeal had low protein content. By combining different plant raw materials and utilizing different sensory testing methods, we were able to design sustainable plant-based dairy alternatives which can be further optimized.
Using Relative Preference mapping (RPM) to identify innovative flavours for 3-blend plant-based milk alternatives in different test locations
(Food Quality and Preference, 2021) Oduro, A.F.; Saalia, F.K.; Adjei, M.Y.B.
The methods available to identify innovations in flavour can be limiting and sometimes long and expensive. Relative Preference Mapping (RPM) was developed as a quick and easy way to identify innovations in wine flavour at wine show consumer day events. There is no report on the use of the RPM method with other non-wine products, neither is there a report on using RPM in a laboratory setting. This study compared the results for consumer preferences for plant-based milk alternatives using RPM methodology carried out in a typical laboratory-based CLT setting and a social setting. In both test locations, ninety (90) regular consumers of plantbased milk alternatives completed the test. The aim was to determine if innovative new flavours of plant-based milk alternatives can be identified from within a set of laboratory-formulated prototypes of three-blend plantbased milk alternatives. In this study, commercially available dairy milk, which was sweetened in the laboratory was used as the reference product. A popular plant-based milk alternative was included in the product test set to provide an internal reference for the laboratory formulated prototypes. From the study, the RPM method was able to highlight an area of innovation where two of the 3-blend prototypes were loaded together with the commercial plant-based milk alternative in the 2D consensus map generated from Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA). When the liking scores from the T-map scale axis in the social and laboratory settings were compared using ANOVA, the liking scores were higher in the social setting than in the laboratory setting. This observation, however, did not change interpretations about flavour innovations highlighted in the 2D map. The RPM method was consistent in highlighting the same products as innovations when used in both test locations. The findings support the use of RPM as a useful tool to determine innovative product flavours and can be used consistently in two different test locations.