CONSUMER EXPECTATION AND SENSORY ACCEPTANCE IN GOAT COALHO CHEESE WITH DIFFERENT ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

The Coalho cheese is a popular dairy product in the Northeast region of Brazil, which presents high acceptance, consumption, and production. However, goat Coalho cheese is not well accepted by nonhabitual consumers than cow Coalho cheese, due to goat cheese characteristics, as flavor and aroma. Therefore, the alcoholic beverages can be a technological strategy to improve the acceptance of goat Coalho cheese. Thus, this study was aimed to establish the consumers expectation and sensory analysis (acceptability, purchase intention, just-about-right scale, and check-all-that-apply) of goat Coalho cheese seasoned with different alcoholic beverages. For this, five treatments of goat Coalho cheeses were elaborated: without alcoholic beverage (control); with cachaça (T1); with liqueur (T2); with mead (T3); and with beer (T4). Microbiological analyzes were performed and the cheeses attended the requirements recommended for their innocuity. The consumers expectation was indifferent about goat Coalho cheese with alcoholic beverages. In addition, consumers expect to be slightly familiar with goat dairy products and expects to enjoy moderately the goat's characteristic flavor. Among the treatments with alcoholic beverage, the T4 had the best acceptability (6.73 ± 1.77) and purchase intention (3.42 ± 1.15), on the hedonistic scale of 9 and 5 points, respectively. This result can be associated with the familiarity and habitual consumption of beer. The T03 had the lowest acceptability (5.94±1.92) and purchase intention (2.91±1.27), being this treatment penalized in the ideal scale by the aroma and flavor alcoholic and acid taste. In check-all-that-apply, the soft and white characteristics were the most emphasized by the tasters. According to the principal component analysis (PCA), acid and alcoholic aromas and acid taste were the characteristics responsible for differences in acceptance of the cheese. It can be concluded that it is possible to elaborate a goat Coalho cheese with good acceptability, mainly using the beer as seasoning.