CRIMSON RAISINS: A SENSORIAL ANALYSIS
Grape is a fruit rich in carbohydrates and source of iron, vitamins and minerals. The Crimson grapes are produced in the irrigated regions of the São Francisco valley and they are reddish, seedless, with firm texture and high sugar concentrate. In order to encourage grape production, the grape preservation by drying becomes interesting, because it increases the shelf life and adds commercial value. Nowadays, most of the raisins marketed in Brazil are imported. The raisins are obtained by drying in tray dryers, which consist in overlapping trays with hot air circulation through them. In this research, the Crimson grape was dried in tray dryer with air at 70ºC for 16 hours in order to obtain this type of raisins. A sensorial analysis with 50 tasters was conducted using the acceptance test and the Check-All-that-Apply (CATA) test. The acceptance test was performed to determine the raisins global impression (appearance, texture, flavor, aroma, global impression) through unstructured hedonic scale with nine centimeters. The CATA test was carried out with 14 sensory descriptors and the consumers pointed out those that were pertinent for each sample. From the acceptance test, it was obtained 84% acceptance for attributes as appearance and flavor, 80% acceptance for the overall impression, while attributes like texture and aroma presented neutral acceptance with 66% and 60%, respectively. In the CATA test, the most of citation occurred in appearance (92%), tasty (92%) and characteristic flavor (96%). Bad attributes as fermented taste, bitter, tough and dried out were little mentioned, and it characterizes a good product. In conclusion, Crimson raisins had good acceptance among the target audience of this research.