ACCEPTANCE EVALUATION OF POUND CAKES MADE WITH HYDRATED CHIA (Salvia hispanica L.) AS FAT REPLACER

Many studies relate high fat levels in food to various diseases, which implies on a demand for products with lower fat contents. Nevertheless, fat is responsible for important sensory characteristics. Considering this, the aim of this study was to observe how the replacement of palm fat by hydrated chia (Salvia hispanica L.) at 25% (F25) and 50% (F50) levels, in comparison to a control without fat replacement, influenced pound cake sensory characteristics through an acceptance evaluation. The sensory evaluation was carried out by 120 consumers using a 9‐cm unstructured hedonic scale going from “extremely disliked” to “extremely liked” for appearance, color, aroma, flavor, texture and overall impression, in individual booths with white light. Samples were presented on paper napkins, randomly coded using 3‐digit numbers, and following a balanced complete block design. Results were analyzed by two‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's test. For appearance, means were 6.87, 6.37 and 6.36, color means were 7.55, 7.14 and 6.86, aroma means were 6.80, 6.80 and 7.09, flavor means were 6.09, 6.48 and 6.13, texture means were 5.63, 5.95 and 5.72 and overall impression means were 6.27, 6.45 and 6.24, being these values of the control formulation, F25 and F50, respectively. All means were above 5.50, indicating that all samples had a positive acceptance. Formulations with hydrated chia had significantly lower means for the attributes appearance and color, since the cakes had visible chia seeds and bigger holes in their crumbs. However, means for all other attributes were very close for all formulations. Therefore, with some adjustments, hydrated chia may be a potential fat replacer in pound cakes.