A recent study evaluated the consumer acceptability of gluten-free scones made with oats, black rice, brown rice, buckwheat, and rice flours. Consumers preferred gluten-free scones made with buckwheat and wheat to those prepared with oats, rice flours, black rice, and brown rice.
Study
The current study utilized CATA questions to evaluate consumer acceptability of gluten-free scones prepared using different gluten-free flours, including brown rice, buckwheat, oat, black rice, and rice flours. Control scone samples were prepared using original wheat flour.
All dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) were mixed and sieved for scone preparation. A food processor was used to combine butter, milk, and eggs. The dough was gently kneaded for a few minutes and was wrapped to rest in the refrigerator. After one hour, the dough was rolled out, and the scones were cut and baked in the oven. After baking, the scones were cooled and ready for consumers’ sensory testing.
A total of 100 consumers, including 65 females and 35 males, from the Chungju area participated in this study. None of the participants was required to have a prior sensory testing experience. All scone samples were presented to the participants in a white paper dish with strawberry jam. The consumer acceptability test was focused on various attributes, such as taste, texture, appearance, outer crispiness, color, aroma, purchasing intention, and familiarity. They were also subjected to CATA questions, where consumer panels selected terms that best described their tasting experiences.
Results
CATA questions considered 29 sensory terms to describe gluten-free scones, of which ten exhibited significant differences among samples, including color, newness, familiarity, texture, appearance, grainy flavor, sweetness, familiar flavor, and moistness.
Those prepared using wheat and rice flours were frequently favoured among different scone samples due to their appearance, familiarity, color, and moistness. However, scones made with wheat flour exhibited the highest frequencies in savory flavor, texture, harmonious ingredient blend, familiarity, and moistness. This finding suggests that consumers are more familiar with bakery items made from wheat flour.
In CATA analysis, black rice scones had higher frequencies for “newness” and “healthy” than all the studied scone types. However, this scone type exhibited the lowest frequencies for the rest of the sensory characteristics. This finding indicates that the black color did not positively affect the other organoleptic sensations. Its high “newness” score may reflect a psychological association between dark colored foods and perceived health benefits, despite a low rating for overall sensory appeal.
While wheat performed well in appearance and aftertaste, buckwheat excelled across a broader range of sensory attributes. The consumers rated the buckwheat scone sample the highest in terms of overall liking, overall taste, inner color, texture, sweet flavor, savory flavor, aroma/smell, softness, purchase intention, moistness, cohesiveness, outer crispiness, recommendation, and familiarity compared to wheat. Despite the undesirable color, the black rice scone scored higher in consumer acceptability than the oat and brown rice scones.
Partial least squares regression (PLSR) analysis was performed to uncover the association between sensory attributes by CATA and consumer acceptability of the gluten-free scone samples. A positive correlation was observed between overall liking and purchase intention. This association suggests that sensory attributes (e.g., nutty flavor, appearance, cohesiveness, moistness, color, texture, and inner softness) positively influence acceptability. Conversely, sensory characteristics such as stuffiness, thick throat sensation, and unique flavor negatively affected acceptability, especially in oat and black rice scones.
Conclusion
The current study highlighted the potential application of gluten-free flours in bakery products based on sensory properties. Buckwheat flour indicated the highest potential for consumer acceptance among the different gluten-free flours studied. Buckwheat is also nutritionally rich, containing phytochemicals like rutin and quercetin, which may add additional health value.
Future research should address the shortcomings of the current study by considering an equal gender balance cohort and analyzing the physicochemical characteristics of gluten-free scones. It must focus on improving the nutritional quality of gluten-free products by incorporating innovative ingredients.
Source:
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20250716/Why-buckwheat-may-be-the-best-flour-for-gluten-free-baking.aspx