Application of electronic tongue to soya drink discrimination

Abstract

The objective of the research was to compare the taste attributes of different commercial soya drinks. Furthermore, the task was to determine the effect of different ingredients and processing technologies on the taste attributes of the product. Based on the results of electronic tongue measurements the instrument is able to determine the effect of the applied technology and to distinguish soya juice samples according to sensory preferences. Canonical discriminant analysis showed that the groups of two measurements of the same products were overlapping. Therefore, the electronic tongue measurements are supposed to be of acceptable repeatability. The canonical discriminant analysis showed that the taste attributes of soya juice made of hulled soybeans was beneficial for the taste attributes relative to that of the juice made of not-hulled soybeans. Three main groups could be observed from the analyzed six commercial soya drink samples based on canonical discriminant analysis. There is a group of top market brands having definite taste improver additives and another one containing three products having low amount of additives. However, the group of samples made of soybean and rice is located between the above-mentioned two groups in the discriminant score plot.