Sensory study of the effect of sweetener and seaweed addition on Japanese deer meat

Abstract

Economic loss of agricultural and forestry resources has overwhelmingly increased in recent decades due to feeding damage of Japanese Deer （Cervus nippon centralis） in Japan. Utilization of a captured deer is becoming critical issue in relation to a management of the deer population. In this research, sensory research was carried out in order to investigate the consumer palatability for the deer meat processed by a sweetener （Trehalose and Sucrose） or seaweed （Wakame seaweed and Kombu）. The deer meat was investigated by panel test which consisted of 98 ordinary consumers. Sensory research was carried out using a questionnaire about taste, aroma, toughness, greasiness, juiciness and aggregate score of the meat, where each question was made of five choices. The deer meat processed by Wakame was evaluated significantly higher than the deer meat of no processing in all evaluation items. Interaction between the sex and the preference for deer meat was significant in taste score.