Role of Primary Senses in Judging of Dairy Products

The relationship of five primary senses with different attributes of dairy products is shown in Fig. below.

Relationship of the Five Primary Senses with Sensory Attributes of a Food Product

 a) Sight: The characteristics of a diary product that can be evaluated by sense of sight are: style, neatness and cleanliness of package exterior, attractiveness of product finish, package closures, colour consistency, body and texture and overall appearance. The labeling of the packaging has also to be examined. Colour and appearance aspects of dairy products should not be overlooked because these features may render the product acceptable/ unacceptable.

b) Smell (Aroma): This sense plays paramount role in evaluation of quality of dairy products. The role of olfactory perception is greater in overall flavour than the taste. Milk and dairy products are smelled for aroma perception immediately after the opening of closure/ package and earlier than the taste.

c) Taste: It is a companion sense with aroma in establishing the overall flavour of diary products. In some of the products, particularly frozen dairy product where volatile compounds are not perceived by sense of smell at very low temperature, the sense of taste plays deciding role for evaluating the flavour.

d) Touch: Tactual and mouth feel play an important role in examining the body and texture characteristics. The tongue and palate evaluate feeling of meatiness and grittiness in butter and sandy defect in ice cream and sweetened condensed milk. The pressure between the teeth and jaws determine the hardness, chewiness and gumminess. The fingertips and ball of the thump help in determining other textural attributes, notably stickiness, elasticity/ sponginess and brittleness.

e) Sound: The evaluator can detect the presence of ice crystals while drawing a ice cream sample with spoon. The relative size and distribution of holes in Swiss cheese can be felt by the gentle tapping of the outside of the cheese.