SORGHUM ICE CREAM CONE TEXTURE; CORRELATIONS BETWEEN INSTRUMENTAL AND SENSORY ANALYSIS

Although sensory analysis gives a more complete description of food texture there has been a great interest in developing instrumental techniques. In this research, texture was objectively measured using an Instron universal testing machine. Textural parameters such as mechanical hardness and bending strength were determined and the resulting force displacement graphs used to determine crispness of ice cream cones. Results showed that water, sugar and starch content of the ice cream cone had the greatest effect on the texture properties of baked sorghum based ice cream cones. There was a highly significant correlation between the sensory analysis and instrumental measurement of crispness (0.956) and mechanical hardness (0.958) implying that objectively measured hardness and crispness can be used to adequately determine the texture of ice cream cones. The model developed for estimating the overall acceptability using objectively assessed hardness and crispness was found to have values of R2 = 0.889 and R2adjusted = 0.868 which classifies it as a very good prediction model and can therefore be used with good accuracy to predict or optimize the texture of sorghum ice-cream cones for better consumer acceptability.