Development of a preliminary sensory lexicon and standard references of ewes milk cheeses aided by multivariate statistical procedures

Ewes milk cheeses have a special taste and flavor, very different from that of cheeses made from cows milk. A new descriptive and discriminative language and the corresponding set of standard references for evaluating the main sensory characteristics of ewes cheeses were developed. Two multivariate statistical procedures, Stepwise Discriminant Analysis (SDA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were applied during the development and selection of the sensory attributes. The list of terms and references selected should help researchers elucidate the factors influencing typical odor, flavor and texture development in these cheese varieties, and improve sensory quality in cheese factories. The aim of the present study was the development of a preliminary lexicon and standard references for ewes milk cheeses. To achieve this goal a statistical method has been proposed to select the most adequate ewes milk cheese sensory terms.