Relationship between Evaluation of Taste Sensing System and Component Analysis in Sugar Products

Brown sugar and black sugar (Kokuto) are increasingly popular ingredients of processed foods around the world. Classification of their taste quality through instrumental analysis can help us devise better food products. The feasibility of such statistical classification was assessed using 95 sugar products from Japan and elsewhere by evaluating their taste information values obtained with a taste sensor. Subsequent principal component analysis and cluster analysis divided the sugar products into three groups. The Kokuto taste index proposed previously and PC1 scores from the principal component analysis of taste information values matched almost perfectly. Strong correlations were noted with polyphenol content and color (an absolute coefficient of at least 0.74). Such instrumental analysis enables comparison of multiple sugar products at a time as well as comparison with products sold in the past, and thereby holds promise for further development of new brown sugar and syrup products.