Amorphophallus konjac: Sensory Profile of This Novel Alternative Flour on Gluten-Free Bread

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the sensory profile of gluten-free bread with Amorphophallus konjac (AK) flour in different concentrations. This experimental study is divided into three steps: preparation of the gluten-free bread formulations, sensory analysis, and statistical analysis. The addition of Konjac flour in a gluten-free bread formulation was tested in different proportions, 12.5%, 25%, 37.5%, and 50% of the flour content. The checking all-that-apply (CATA) was conducted with 110 panelists; among these, 43 were consumers of gluten-free bread. Sensory analysis was conducted using a 9-point hedonic scale for color, aroma, texture, flavor, appearance, and overall acceptability. The AK flour influenced the sensory characteristics of gluten-free bread. Bread with characteristics closer to those found in bread with gluten was the one with 12.5% of konjac flour for both the acceptability analysis as the attributes raised through a detailed CATA map. The control sample is located next to features like dry appearance, dry texture and grainy, dark color, and salty. Therefore, 12.5% AK gluten-free bread is closer to the characteristics of the control sample, such as light crust color, light crumb color, soft and moist texture, cohesion, and brightness. The bread with the highest percentage of overall consumer acceptance was 12.5% konjac with 93% and 96% acceptance among consumers and non-consumers of gluten-free bread, respectively.

Keywords: bread; check-all-that-apply (CATA); glucomannan; gluten-free; hedonic scale.

Figure 1

Gluten-free bread—from left to right, control gluten-free bread; bread with the addition of 12.5% of Amorphophallus konjac flour; 25%; 37.5%; and 50%.

Figure 2

Sensory descriptive map resulting from Correspondence Analysis performed on the CATA data (n = 110).

Figure 3

Sensory descriptive map resulting from Correspondence Analysis performed on the CATA data (n = 43).