EVALUATION OF THE ATTRIBUTES OF QUALITY OF MARKET "DOCE DE LEITE"

Abstract

The "doce de leite" is an important food produced and marketed mainly in Argentina and Brazil. Despite being produced in large volume and widely used as food ingredients, has no uniformity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the acceptance of six brands of "doce de leite" sold in the city of Lavras / MG and identify the attributes that influence the quality of "doce de leite". Were performed to analyze color, texture, water activity (Aw) and sensory. The results obtained showed a wide variation in color, texture and water activity between the brands of "doce de leite" evaluated. In relation to sensory analysis, through internal preference mapping three-way, it was observed that the marks A, B and F were the most preferred brands and the D and E the least preferred. The external preference mapping, can be seen that the higher hardness and buds presented by the sample and D presented higher brightness for the sample E were the attributes responsible for the rejection of these brands. Therefore, it was observed that the texture and color are important attributes in choosing the product, as consumers preferred the darker samples, softer and less sticky. Therefore, the results of this study can be applieby the dairy industry to develop and rebuild their formulations of "doce de leite" to better meet consumer demands.