Penalty and mean drop analysis for sourdough bread

Abstract

Spontaneous fermentation of flour and water by naturally occurring lactic acid bacteria and yeasts gives sourdough. Bread produced with sourdough is characterized by numerous nutritional and functional benefits, as well as specific sensory characteristics that differ greatly from bread obtained with the use of baker's yeast. The acceptability of some product can be tested by applying the liking test. On the other hand, in order to obtain the information regarding the deviation of the product from the "ideal" according to consumers, the mean drop and penalty analysis can be applied. For this purpose, 84 consumers were regrouted. They were asked to evaluate the overall liking of two bread samples: sourdough bread with the addition of spontaneously fermented spelled flour starter and classic white bread with the addition of baker's yeast. After this phase, the consumers were asked to assess the suitability of the sour taste intensity by using the scale "just about right - JAR" with 9 points (1 = too little, 5 = JAR, 9 = too much). The results indicate that over 60% of respondents believe that the analysed sourdough bread is too sour, which reduced the overall liking score by over 2.5 points. On the other hand, for the control sample, consumers reduced the rating by almost 1.0 point because they felt that the product was not sour enough.