DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SENSORY PROPERTIES OF BEVERAGES AND GELATINS CONTAINING SUCROSE OR SYNTHETIC SWEETENERS ¹

Abstract

ABSTRACT Two descriptive sensory methods, anchored (deviation from a sucrose reference) and unanchored, were used to quantify differences in aroma, flavor and aftertaste in five media – strawberry, lemon and orange drinks, and strawberry and orange gelatins – varying in type of sweetener. With both methods, samples sweetened with sodium saccharin deviated the most from the sucrose standard, those sweetened with aspartame the least, and calcium cyclamate was intermediate. In general, drinks sweetened with sucrose or with aspartame could be characterized as “sweet‐clean”, and those sweetened with cyclamate or with saccharin as “sweet‐chemical” and “bitter”. Gelatins containing synthetic sweeteners generally were more astringent, bitter and sour, with less strawberry flavor, and were significantly less hard, springy and viscous than those sweetened with sucrose. In all media, more significant differences were observed among the sweeteners with the anchored method than with the unanchored procedure. Advantages and limitations of these two quantitative descriptive procedures are discussed.