Abstract
Shao-mai (steamed Chinese-style meat dumplings) is a familiar food consumed in Japan. Here, the characteristics of several types of shao-mai manufactured in Japan were investigated by descriptive sensory evaluation. A panel of 18 judges who were selected and trained in accordance with the ISO 8586-1 evaluated 8 shao-mai samples. First, 135 sensory descriptive terms of shao-mai were collected through an open-ended sensory evaluation by the trained panel, and then a list of 61 terms were developed from a roundtable discussion by a select number of the judges who had previous experience in evaluating shao-mai. A preliminary sensory test was conducted on a 5-point category scale using the 61 terms as descriptors. After cluster analysis, 19 terms (4 on appearance, 8 on flavor, and 7 on texture) were selected and defined as sensory descriptors for shao-mai. Judges indicated their perception of the intensity of each quality on a 100-mm unstructured line, with anchored terms located 10mm from each end. The principal component analysis determined the first principal component to be “flavor and texture derived from meat products”, the second to be “flavor intensity by seasoning” and the third to be “juiciness”. A sensory characteristic map of each shao-mai sample was drawn by a scatter plot composed of the factor loadings and sample scores to clearly show the sensory characteristics of each sample. Similar results from the different manufactured shao-mai samples confirmed the wide application of the 19 descriptors, thus providing a useful method for designing and developing products for consumer acceptability.
