2.4. Sensory profiling
The sensory profiling took place at 50% of the expected shelf life,
i.e. 16 days for sausages and ham, 28 days for bacon and 45 days for
salami.
The sensory profilingwas performed by a trained sensory panelwith
nine assessors: two male and seven female, 54–63 years old and with
1–15 years of experience of assessing meat products. The assessors
had received general training in accordance with ISO 8586–1 (1993),
ISO 13299 (2003), ISO 4121 (2003) and ASTM-MNL13 (1992). Before
assessing each product type, the assessorswere trained for two sessions
to gain consensus on the attributes and the use of the scale. Where appropriate,
references typical of the attributewere usedwhen discussing
the attributes, for example a metal coin for metallic, NaCl for salt taste,
etc. The attributeswere assessed on a 15 cm unstructured line scale anchored
1 cm from either end. Appearance was assessed first, followed
by odour. Then flavour was assessed, and finally texture. The samples
were served on awhite platewith a three digit number in a randomised
order within replicate. Four replicates were assessed for each product.
The sausageswere placed in boilingwater and left for 10 min before
serving. The core temperature at serving was 70 °C. Half a sausage was
coveredwith a metal lid and served to each assessor. Baconwas fried in
an oven at 200 °C for 9 min before being served. Ham (one slice) and
salami (two slices) were served at room temperature