Bottled mineral water: classic and temporal descriptive sensory analysis associated with liking

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine the classic (static) and dynamic sensory profile of different bottled mineral water samples, and to evaluate the consumer’s liking of the products.

Design/methodology/approach

Classic quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) and temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) were applied to four brands of bottled mineral water and the liking of the products was evaluated by consumers.

Findings

The dissolved mineral concentration is highly correlated to the liking and influences the sensory profile of the samples in a substantial way. The higher the mineral content, the lowest is the liking. Refreshing, residual plastic taste, musty, metallic taste, medicine taste and viscosity were relevant attributes to the samples differentiation through the static evaluation, while refreshing and viscosity were dominant in the dynamic monitoring. Some information might have been lost by the nature of the TDS method, based on dominance concept. Sweet taste contributed positively and musty taste negatively to the acceptance.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrated that TDS can be used as a complementary tool to the QDA, contributing to a deeper comprehension of the differences among samples, even in products with low differences, such as bottled mineral water.

Citation

Pacheco, M.H.S., Esmerino, E.A., Capobiango, C.S.C., Cruz, A.G., Leddomado, L.S., Pimentel, T.C., Benevides Filho, I.M. and de Freitas, M.Q. (2018), "Bottled mineral water: classic and temporal descriptive sensory analysis associated with liking", British Food Journal, Vol. 120 No. 7, pp. 1547-1560. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2017-0655