Soft starchy candy as a food model to study the relationship between sensory and selected physicochemical properties.

Soft starchy candy is a dessert with unique characteristics of thin sugar crust, soft internal texture and coconut milk flavour. Eight commercial samples were selected to represent commercially available products. Sensory liking were evaluated and analysed by preference mapping techniques. A lexicon consisting of 17 attributes was developed by a trained descriptive panel. Principal component analysis yielded four dimensions with 95.04% total variance explained. The product, having the highest liking scores in most of the sensory attributes evaluated, contained moisture and fat contents of 17.77% and 16.32%, respectively, which affected its aroma, flavour and texture. A significant relationship between sensory liking and some descriptive analysis attributes was observed. Sensory characteristics influencing overall liking were 'coconut milk' and 'scented candle' aroma and flavour, 'hardness' and 'crust hardness'. This study revealed selected chemical composition and critical sensory attributes of soft starchy candy products that would help manufacturers develop acceptable products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]