NUCIS number 12. September 2004. 52 pages (full ... - IAMZ - ciheam

ARTICLESAND REPORTSCONSUMERS’ ACCEPTANCEOF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTSMADE WITH HAZELNUTSAND ALMONDSINTRODUCTIONHazelnuts and almonds are used to makeindustrial products like snacks, turrons,marzipan or chocolates. Although there iswide information about their chemicalcomposition and the influence of manyprocesses on the products´ final characteristics,there is a lack of informationabout consumers’ acceptance of these typesof products when hazelnut and almondvarieties change.For these reasons IRTA started in 1999 aresearch programme in order to analyzethe importance of selecting different nutvarieties to make different industrial products,as a consequence of consumers’acceptance. This information could be relevantnot only to producers but also forthe confectionery industry. Results for differentnut products have been publishedin several scientific reports (see references).An overall analysis of hazelnut andalmond commodities is made in this article.Variety is used as synonym of cultivar.METHODOLOGYFrom 1999 to 2002 four hazelnut varieties(‘Negret’, ‘Pauetet’, ‘Tomboul’ and ‘Tondadi Giffoni’) and eight almond varieties(‘Desmayo Largueta’, ‘Francolí’, ‘Glorieta’,‘Marcona’, ‘Masbovera’, ‘Nonpareil’and ‘Planeta’) were used to make severalproducts: dark chocolate with nuts, whitechocolate with nuts, brown chocolate withnuts, bonbons made with roasted nuts enrobedwith burnt sugar and coated withdark chocolate, marzipan and hard andsoft turrons.Chocolates and bonbons were made incollaboration with the industry “L’Art de laXocolata” (El Vendrell, Tarragona), whilemarzipan and turrons were made in theindustry “Turrons i Mel Alemany SL” (Osde Balaguer, Lleida). Hazelnut and almondsamples came from IRTA´s collections,while ‘Tomboul’ hazelnuts and‘Nonpareil’ almonds were purchased onthe market.Each commodity was assessed for industrialfacility, final quality and consumers’acceptance. Commodity acceptance wasevaluated using the consumers panelFigure 1.- Chocolate with nuts.“L’Art de la Xocolata” industryfrom IRTA (table 1), including over 670people (almost 300 families), and distributedall around Catalonia (Spanish NE).Consumer’s answers were weighted byage and education level in order to extrapolateconclusions to Catalonian people.MAIN RESULTSResults show that there are statistical differencesin variety acceptance, dependingon the industrial product studied. Sometimesthese differences can be solvedchanging the technological process, althoughthis has been observed for roastedhazelnuts and not for other products.For example, dark chocolate (Figure 1)was the most accepted, mainly for ‘Pauetet’hazelnut variety and for ‘Masbovera’almond variety. ‘Negret’ and ‘Tomboul’hazelnuts and ‘Desmayo Largueta’ and‘Francolí’ almonds showed a very goodtechnological behaviour to make bonbons(figure 2). ‘Marcona’ almonds were thebest accepted to make marzipan (Figure3) and hard turron (Figure 4), while ‘Negret’variety was the most accepted forhard turron made with hazelnuts. Finally,soft turrons (Figure 5) were most accep-Table 1.- Consumers distribution by sex, age, education level and city size in boththe IRTA panel and the Catalonian people.IRTA’s panelFigure 2.- Chocolate coating to make bonbons.“L’Art de la Xocolata” industryFigure 3.- Cutting marzipan.“Turrons i mels Alemany” industryted when they were made with ‘Marcona’or ‘Desmayo Largueta’ almond varieties.The overall analysis of the results alsoshows that sensorial characteristics fromhazelnuts and almonds must be consideredto make an industrial product. Inmost of them, sensorial profile from roastednuts should be known while in a fewof them the most important is the profilefrom raw nuts. Even though, when a productincludes sugar in its recipe the differencesin taste are not relevant enough,but it is still important that nut taste canbe identified.CataloniaSex: % %Men 49.7 48.8Women 50.3 51.2Age:< 30 years old 23.5 36.730 to 65 years old 68.6 46.1> 65 years old 7.9 17.2City habitants:< 30.000 40.4 43.6> 30.000 59.6 56.4Education level:Basic 34.9 69.3Middle 22.9 20.7High 42.2 10.04 FAO-CIHEAM - Nucis-Newsletter, Number 12 September 2004