2.5. Physical characteristics and sensory evaluation
Cookies were evaluated for different parameters. Ten, randomly chosen cookies were taken to measure weight, height and width (diameter). Spread ratio was calculated from the ratio of width and height.
Sensory evaluation of produced cookies was performed by the internal procedure of the Institute for Food Technology in Novi Sad. A panel of six semi-professional judges, from the Institute’s Laboratory for Sensory Analysis of Bakery Products, was engaged in the cookie scoring.
The scoring card for quality characteristics of cookies contained the following parameters: shape, appearance of upper surface, appearance of lower surface, fracturability, structure, chewiness and taste. The scores for each parameter ranged from 1 to 5. As the chosen parameters do not have the same importance for final sensory quality, a different factor of significance was assigned to each of them: 0.3 for shape, 0.5 for upper surface, 0.4 for lower surface, 0.4 for fracturability, 0.6 for structure, 0.8 for chewiness and 1.0 for taste. Total score for sensory evaluation of the samples was obtained by summing the grades for each parameter obtained by multiplying the parameter score with the corresponding factor of significance.