Development of Japanese Texture Lexicon for Food Texture Studies

要旨

Texture terms play an important role in food texture studies, especially in sensory evaluation. A well-organized texture lexicon assists researchers with sensory evaluation of texture. In this study, Japanese texture terms were collected, characterized, and classified in order to develop a texture lexicon. First, 445 texture terms in Japanese were collected from questionnaires to food scientists/technologists, literature searches, and interviews with experts. Next, foods associated with the 445 Japanese texture terms were collected and analyzed. The spatial configuration of the terms showed the structure of the Japanese texture vocabulary. The terms were then classified hierarchically by questionnaires and multivariate analyses. The classification in this study revealed some characteristics unique to the Japanese texture vocabulary, such as a wide variety of terms concerned with stickiness and elasticity. Additionally, the food texture vocabularies of Japanese consumers were investigated through questionnaires. The data showed that the recognition of some terms differed according to the gender, age and/or region of consumers. Some factors, such as eating experiences and dialect usage, could explain the reason behind these differences. The data obtained in this study can be applied to preliminary lexicon sources of descriptive sensory evaluation, and can provide useful clues to the understanding of Japanese texture terms.

主題