Principal component analysis of hedonic and fuzzy approach sensory evaluation for compositional optimization of Refractance-Window dried jackfruit leather

Making fruit bars is a potential solution to the spoilage and transportation issues of the bulky, perishable, and underutilized jackfruit. Refractance Window (RW) drying is known for its quick-drying action whilst preserving food materials’ nutritional and sensory quality. For any food product development, organoleptic assurance is a crucial first step. This paper presents the sensory analysis study of nine RW-dried jackfruit leather samples with varying ratios of sucrose and pectin for compositional optimization. Two sensory approaches, the 9-point hedonic and the fuzzy approach, were used for sensory analysis using the attributes, namely, Colour, Aroma, Taste, Mouthfeel, Aftertaste, Hardness, and Overall Acceptability (OAA). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to analyze the sensory data. The final best-accepted samples from hedonic and fuzzy approaches were leathers with 10% sucrose + 0.5% pectin and 10% sucrose + 0% pectin, respectively. PCA on sensory data revealed that overall acceptance of jackfruit leather increased with sucrose addition, and the effectiveness of pectin did not follow any trend. The difference in results from the two approaches lies in the comparative importance of the quality attributes taken into consideration in the fuzzy approach. Besides providing insights on correlations in the sensory data, PCA facilitates freedom of parameters-range selection for future studies targetting desirable sensory outcomes.