Sensory characterisation of cooked hams by untrained consumers using free-choice profiling

The sensory characteristics of 11 hams were measured by 18 untrained consumers using Free-Choice Profiling and the data were analysed by Generalised Procrustes Analysis. Each consumer expressed their preference as an additional question. The first three dimensions of the analysis accounted for 37.9, 9.0 and 7.8% of the consensus variance, respectively, and Analysis of Variance showed significant differences between hams on all three dimensions. To summarise the freely chosen descriptive vocabularies, and help characterise each ham, descriptors thought to have similar meaning were separately modeled by Principal Components Analysis and model-to-model distances within the sensory groups of appearance, texture and flavour were calculated using Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy. Wiltshire type hams appeared marbled and dark in colour, had a fibrous and chewy texture and a hammy and meaty flavour. A shoulder meat ham appeared processed, rubbery, plastic and moist, had a processed, rubbery, moist and strong structured texture and a processed flavour. Modern tumbled hams varied in sensory character between the Wiltshire and the shoulder hams, and their character was reflected by their price. Preference was expressed for the Wiltshire hams and the modern tumbled hams with Wiltshire-type character.