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theses

Derivatives of l-menthol are cooling ingredients that are widely used in confectionery, personal care, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. However, the psychophysics of cooling is rather complex and the sensory perception of cooling ingredients is not well understood. We aimed to characterize the oral sensation of two different cooling ingredient blends in flavored beverages. In addition, we assessed the role of ethnicity, gender and familiarity in the sensory perceptions and hedonic reactions of flavored beverages containing cooling ingredient blends. 116 healthy subjects who were East Asian (n=54), Caucasian (n=43) or other (n=19) participated in the study. The stimuli were lemon-lime flavored beverages with two novel cooling ingredient blends: Coolact® 38D /Frescolat® ML blend or Coolact ®5 /Coolact ®10 blend. Each blend was tested at four concentrations: 0 (control), 75, 150, 300 ppm. Subjects rated intensity and liking of each sample for cooling, heat/burning, tingling, sweetness, bitterness and overall flavor on a 15-cm line scale at four time points over a 10-min period (0, 2.5, 5 and 10 min after tasting). The intensity of all attributes was maximal immediately after tasting (P< 0.0001) and decreased with time (P<0.0001). Both blends primarily delivered the sensations of cooling and tingling with minimal perception of heat/burning and bitterness. At time 0, East Asians perceived more heat/burning than Caucasians (P< 0.01). Female perceived more cooling from taste samples than male (P = 0.004). Also, subjects who were familiar with flavored beverages containing cooling ingredients (n=60) perceived more cooling, heat/burning and tingling from Coolact ®5 / Coolact ®10 blend (p< 0.0001) and more cooling (p < 0.001) and heat/burning (p< 0.01) from Coolact® 38D /Frescolat® ML blend compared to subjects who were not familiar with these products (n=56). In addition, our results demonstrated that subjects who had prior experience with cooling ingredient beverages had better ability to discriminate the concentration differences of cooling blends. Our data suggest that the intensity of cooling ingredients in beverages is influenced by ethnicity, gender and prior experience with these types of beverages. These factors should be considered in future psychophysical studies of cooling ingredients and related product applications.

ETD_4693

M.S.

Includes bibliographical references

by Xiaorong Su

http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000068977

doi:10.7282/T33X857K

ETD graduate

The author owns the copyright to this work.