Sensory Discrimination of Fat and Solids-Not-Fat in Milk

Abstract

A dual-standard paired comparison method was used to detect additions of fat and of solids-not-fat (SNF) in milk. In milks containing 0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0% fat at base SNF levels (prepared from nonfat milk solids) of 8.5 and 10.0%, the level of fat and SNF did not significantly influence the detection of added SNF. Approximately 0.5% added SNF was detected 67% of the time. In specially prepared fluid milk, it was slightly easier to detect SNF in skimmilk than in milk containing 2.0 or 3.5% fat. In skimmilks, the level of SNF (8.5 vs. 10.0%) influenced detection of fat, but in whole milk the difference was not significant. There were minimum difference for 67% correct response of 0.3% fat in skimmilk (8.5% SNF), 0.8% in fortified skimmilk (10.0% SNF) and 1.5% in whole milk (8.5 and 10.0% SNF). In sensory discrimination of concentration differences, SNF are more important than fat. Temperature and order of serving did not influence detection of differences.