Consumer Evaluation of Potato Chips and Corn Chips Made at the Golden Flakes Plant, Florida

Monoj K Gupta
MG Edible Oil Consulting Intl 9 Lundys Lane, Richardson, TX 75080, USA Telephone: 972 234 1634 (Office); 214 448 3425 (Mobile)

Tests on Products after 3 & 12 Weeks of Storage

October 10, 2009

Introduction
The consumer test on the 3-week old products was conducted on July 8, 2009 and the 12-week old samples were tested on September 10, 2009 at the Nutrition Wellness Research Center Campus Location, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA. The products were stored at 73OF/50% RH (Relative Humidity) until tested.

Frying Potato Chips

Wavy Cut Potato chips were fried in a continuous fryer. The operating data are listed below: Fryer type Fryer production rate Frying oil Fryer oil volume Oil inlet temperature Oil outlet Temperature EPT Oil Shield added Single zone continuous fryer 2400 pounds/hr (1090.9 kg/hr) 70/30 mixture of cottonseed/palm oil 1700 US Gallons (6546 liters) 365OF (185OC) 330OF (165.5OC) 0.05% in the frying oil

Procedure Followed for the Addition of EPT Oil Shield

into the Fryer

EPT Oil Shield was added into the fryer oil in two steps as described below: 1. Calculated amount of EPT Oil Shield was made into slurry in a drum, containing the same 70/30 cottonseed/palm oil blend as in the potato chip fryer. The slurry from the drum was pumped into the fryer with the help of a positive displacement pump. The amount of EPT Oil Shield was sufficient to have a concentration of the EPT Oil Shield at 0.05% concentration in the entire volume of oil in the fryer. The oil

was re-circulated for 60 minutes while the fryer oil temperature was still below the fry-temperature to obtain uniform dispersion of the EPT Oil Shield in the fryer oil. 2. Additional oil slurry was prepared with EPT Oil Shield to attain a concentration of the EPT Oil Shield at 0.05%. This was added into the fryer for oil make-up, using a positive displacement pump. The rate of oil addition was carefully maintained to prevent any fresh oil from coming into the fryer in order to maintain the concentration of EPT Oil Shield at 0.05% during the next 2 2 hours (inlet of any fresh oil into the fryer would mean that there was insufficient amount of oil make up with EPT Oil Shield rich oil being added). Potato chips were analyzed by the plant QA personnel for salt, oil, moisture content and color to make certain that these met the product standard. Sufficient numbers of bags of potato chips were collected for the storage stability/consumer test. The product was shipped to the Consumer Sensory Evaluation Unit in the Nutrition and Wellness Research Center Campus/Iowa State University, Ames Iowa. Ground transportation was used instead of air shipment in order to avoid bursting of any bags in air transit.

Product Testing
Potato Chips
The potato chips were placed in closed containers for sampling. Samples were identified with randomly selected 3-digit code numbers. One bag of each product was opened for each group of 10 consumers. Each consumer first answered demographic questions and was then presented with the 2 potato chip samples. The order in which each consumer evaluated the potato chips was randomized between panelists. Upon completion of the potato chip evaluation the consumer was presented with the 2 tortilla chip samples, randomized as described above. Testing was conducted in individual booths. Panelists were instructed to take a drink of water between evaluations. Data was collected using a computerized sensory scoring system (COMPUSENSE five, v 4.5, Compusense, Inc., Guelph, Ontario, Canada). A Multiple Comparison Test using Fishers LSD significance of 5% was used to analyze the data. A total of 100 consumers participated in this test at 3 weeks and also later at 12 weeks to judge the products. The consumers graded the products on a scale of 1-9 preference at a confidence level of 5% or a p-value of <0.05. The products were compared on the following attributes:

Aroma Appearance Overall Opinion Crispness Potato or tortilla chip flavor acceptability Oil flavor acceptability Oily mouth feel Product preference

Potato Chip Results

Overall Comments
Potato chips indicated a directional preference at 3 weeks and a clear preference at 12 weeks for the test product over control.

Overall Preference
At 3-weeks the test product was preferred by 58% of the panelists over the control product which received a score of 42%. This was a strong directional overall preference for the test product. A preference of 61/39 would be required to call the difference to be significant at 95% confidence limit (P-Value of <0.05). At the current preference of 58/42 the confidence level is 89% or at a p-Value of 0.11. At 12 weeks, the overall preference for the test product was 62/38 over control. This is a significant difference at a p-value of 0.05. The overall product preference data are listed in Table 1.

Table1 Overall Product Preference for Potato Chips at 3-Weeks & 12 Weeks
At 3-Weeks Control Product Preference 42%
a

At 12-Weeks pValue 0.11 Control Product 38%

b

Test Product 58%

a

Test Product 62%

a

P- Value

0.05

At 3 weeks, a significant number of consumers noticed oil off-flavor in the control product, the p-value was 0.0367 (>96% confidence level). At 12 weeks, the percentage of consumers who noticed oil off-flavor in the control product was very high compared to that in the test product and the p-value

was 0.0008 (>99% confidence level). Therefore, it appears that the oil off-flavor was one of the major factors for the test product to receive more favorable acceptance from the consumers. Oil off-flavor comments are listed in Table 2.

Table-2 Oil Off-Flavor Percentages Observed By Consumers

At 3-Weeks Control Product Consumers Detected Off-Oil Flavor
b

At 12-Weeks pValue Control Product Test Product P- Value

Test Product
a

34%

21%

0.0367

42%b

21%a

0.0008

During the subsequent discussions, it can be seen that the Hedonic scores of the sensory attributes; oil and product analyses on the test product were higher than for control at 12 weeks, except the products were at parity in aroma.

Potato Chip Attributes

Table 3 shows the sensory attribute means for potato chips at 3 weeks and in Table 4 for the 12 week test.

Table 3 Sensory Attribute Means for Potato Chips at 3 Weeks

Attribute (Scale 1-9)
Aroma Appearance Overall Opinion Crispness Chip Flavor Oil Flavor Acceptability Oily Mouth feel
+

Control Product
5.75 a 6.72 a 6.13 a 6.52 a 6.13 a 5.50 a 5.48
a

Test Product
6.00 b 6.33 a 6.38 a 6.67 a 6.05 a 5.85 a 5.84
a

p-Value
0.2101 0.0166* 0.2642 0.4621 0.7203 0.0614+ 0.0804

Approaching significance

At 3 weeks, there were no significant differences in the attributes between the control and the test potato chips except for appearance as shown by the data listed in Table 3. The test product scored lower than the control in appearance. The two products were compared side-by-side in our lab and the following observations were made: There was no difference in the color of the two products. The control chips were larger in size compared to the test product. This was strictly a function of the potato size on the two days the products were made. There were no dark sugar rings on any of the products.

The sensory data for the 12-week test are listed in Table 4.

Table 4 Sensory Attribute Means for Potato Chips at 12 Weeks

Attribute (Scale 1-9)
Aroma Overall Opinion Crispness Chip Flavor Oil Flavor Acceptability Oily Mouth feel

Control Product
5.51 b 6.03 a 6.84 b 5.87 5.27b 5.49
b a

Test Product
5.83 a 6.56 a 7.13 a 6.47 a 5.95 a 5.99
a

p-Value
0.1339 0.0217 0.1626 0.0100 0.0006 0.0036

Note: Overall opinion, Chip Flavor, Oil Flavor acceptability and Oily mouth feel in the test product were responsible for the higher overall preference for the test product at 12 weeks.

At 12 weeks, the sensory attribute averages were strongly in favor of the test product. In this test we did not ask for the appearance in order to avoid confusion between the size of the chips and appearance of the chips influencing the consumers. Following are the favorable comments on the test product: Overall Opinion The test product had a score of 6.56 vs. 6.03 for control with a p-value of 0.0217 Chip Flavor Oil Flavor Acceptability The test product had a score of 6.47 vs. 5.87 for control with a p-value of 0.0100 The test product had a score of 5.95 vs. 5.27 for control with a p-value of 0.0006

Oily Mouth Feel -

The test product had a score of 5.99 vs. 5.49 for control with a p-value of 0.0036 There was no significant difference between the test product and control

Crispness -

Potato Chip Oil Analysis

The fresh oil and the fryer oil analyses plus the tocopherols and total polar material analyses for the potato chips oil samples are listed in Table 5. The results indicate that the test oil retained significantly higher level of tocopherols than control oil. The detail is discussed below: 1. There was a loss of 13.9% of the alfa tocopherol in the oil for the control product and that for the test product was 10.4%. This difference, although measurable, is not considered to be significant for the autoxidative stability of the oil and the product fried in it. Alfa tocopherol is more effective against photoxidation. 2. The biggest difference was noted in the gamma tocopherol level. The control oil lost 25.8% of the original gamma tocopherol while the test oil lost only 6.7%. Gamma tocopherol is the most effective tocopherol against autoxidative degradation of the oil as well as the product fried in it. 3. The combined loss of tocopherols was 8.8% of the initial in the test product oil while that for the control was 18.1%. 4. Total polar material (TPM) was 4.7% in the fresh oil, which is typical. The TPM in the oil at the time of product collection was 14.2% in the control oil and 11.1% in the test oil.

Table - 5 Oil Analysis for Potato Chips

Analysis Fresh Oil Fryer Oil (At Sample Collection) Control Product Tocopherols, PPM Alfa Beta Gamma Delta Total Total Polar Material (TPM), % FFA, % 481 4 299 10 794 4.7 Loss % Test Product 431 4 279 10 724 Test 11.1 0.18 Loss % 10.4 None 6.7 None 8.8

414 13.9 4 None 222 25.8 10 None 650 18.1 Control 14.2

0.04

Potato Chips Product Analysis

The potato chips were analyzed at 3 weeks and 12 weeks for: Moisture content Salt content Oil content Hexanal content

The results are shown in Table 6.

Table 6 Product Analysis at 3 Weeks and 12 Weeks

Analysis At 3 Weeks At 12 Weeks

Control Product

Test Product

Control Product

Test Product

Moisture, %

1.98

1.83

1.51

1.34

Salt, %

1.8

1.8

1.88

1.89

Oil, %

31.4

31.8

30.64

32.42

Hexanal, PPM

2.90

0.76

2.15

1.86

The data in Table 6 indicate that the test product had lower hexanal at both 3 week and 12 week tests. At 3 weeks, the hexanal content in the test product was very low compared to that in control. The difference was less at 12 weeks, but the control product had higher hexanal content. This is congruent with results of the USDA tests, published in the J of Food Science 2009. Hexanal is a breakdown product of linoleic acid. Although hexanal is used as an indicator of lipid oxidation and product rancidity in snack foods and others foods, there are numerous other volatile compounds that are not the breakdown products of linoleic acid but can contribute to off oil-flavor. These compounds are also identified and quantified via GCMS (Gas Chromatograph Mass Spec) method but were not measured in these products during the test. One can notice from the data in Table 6 that there was no significant difference between the test product and control in their moisture, salt and oil contents. Therefore, product acceptability was not influenced by the difference in these attributes.

Concluding Remarks on Potato Chips

The code date for potato chips at Golden Flakes is 12 weeks. The consumer and oil chemistry test results have shown positive outcomes in favor of EPTOIL-Shield. Based on the data, I believe that an additional shelf life of two weeks can be expected for potato chips. It is important to note that the statistical significance in Overall consumer Preference for the test product was contributed by the Chip Flavor, Oil Flavor acceptability and oily mouth feel. Based on the consumer comments and the oil and product analyses, one could expect a shelf life of 14 weeks on the potato chips made with EPT Oil Shield at 0.05% in the oil. Finally, the results are congruent with those obtained at the USDA1 both in terms of consumer preference and oil chemistry (specifically Tocopherols and Hexanal) (and the University of Bologna in Italy before that)2 which provides confidence for the reproducibility of these tests results3

1. Warner at al High temperature Natural Antioxidant Improves Soy Oil for Frying Journal Of Food Science, Volume 74, No 6, 2009 2. Cerratani L. et al Changes in Oxidative Status of Soybean Oil by addition of a new antioxidant during frying AgroFOOD Industry High Tech, Vol 19, No 6, NovDecember 2008 3 Note that both the USDA tests (with tortilla chips) and the University of Bologna (with potato fries) were undertaken with soy oil, while the Golden Fake consumer test was done with a 70/30 mixture of cottonseed/palm oil

Tortilla Chips Frying Tortilla Chips

Restaurant style tortilla chips were fried in a straight-through continuous fryer with a 50/50 mixture of cottonseed/palm oil. The operating data are listed below: Fryer type Fryer production rate Frying oil Fryer oil volume Oil inlet temperature Oil outlet Temperature EPT Oil Shield added Straight through continuous fryer 1700 pounds/hr (772.7 kg/hr) 50/50 mixture of cottonseed/palm oil 400 US Gallons (1540 liters) 360OF (182.2OC) 340OF (171.1OC) 0.05% in the frying oil

Procedure Followed for the Addition of EPT Oil Shield into the Fryer
EPT Oil Shield was added into the fryer oil in two steps in the same manner as described for the potato chip process. Tortilla chips were analyzed by the plant QA personnel for salt, oil, moisture content and color to make certain that these met the product standard in the same manner as for potato chips. Sufficient number of bags of tortilla chips was collected for the storage stability/consumer test. The product was shipped to the Consumer Sensory Evaluation Unit in the Nutrition and Wellness Research Center Campus/Iowa State University, Ames Iowa. Ground transportation was used instead of air shipment in order to avoid bursting of any bags in air transit.

Product Testing
Product testing was conducted in the same manner as described under potato chips.

Results
The test results will be discussed step by step in the same manner as was done for potato chips.

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Overall Comments
The tortilla chip test product did not show a clear-cut win at 12 weeks as the potato chips. At 3 weeks, the test product received a directional overall preference (but not significant at a p-value of 0.05). At 12 weeks the overall preference was reversed but still not significant at a p-value of 0.05. The Hedonic scores for both test and control products were fairly high on a scale of 1 9. It should be reported that a large number of consumers indicated at the 12 - week test that they did not like white corn tortilla chips. It is not clear how much of this influenced the overall preference score at 12 weeks, although the difference was not significant at a p-value of 0.05. All oil analyses on the other hand, indicate better oil quality for the test product. There were no significant difference in the moisture, salt and oil contents of the test and the control products at 3 and 12 weeks. The hexanal content of the test and control products were similar during both tests. Therefore, the absence of a clear win for the test tortilla chip product is believed to be due to the consumer dislike for the white corn product.

Overall Preference
The overall product preference results for the corn chips at 3 and 12 weeks are shown in Table-7. At 3-weeks the test corn chip product was preferred by 57% of the panelists over the control product which received a score of 43%. This was a strong directional overall preference for the test product but not significant at a p-value of 0.05 or lower. As discussed in case of potato chips, a preference of 61/39 would be required to call the difference to be significant at 95% confidence limit (P-Value of <0.05). At the current preference of 57/43 the confidence level is 89% or at a p-Value of 0.11.

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Table7 Overall Product Preference for Corn Chips at 3-Weeks & 12 Weeks
At 3-Weeks Control Product Preference 43%
a

At 12-Weeks pValue 0.11 Control Product 59%

a

Test Product 57%

a

Test Product 41%

a

P- Value

0.11

At 12 weeks, the control product was preferred by 59% of the consumers over 41% for the test product. However, this was a strong directional but non-significant preference for the control product at a p-value of 0.05 or lower. Comments: As stated earlier, the product testing group had reported that a significant percentage of the consumers voluntarily reported that they were not fond of the corn chips made with white corn. This was not the case at 3 weeks. It is contended that the overall product preference result might have been confounded because of this bias against the product itself in this case. At 3 weeks as well as at 12 weeks, very low number of consumers noticed any oil off-flavor, shown in Table-8. There was no significant difference in the total number of consumers who reported oil off-flavor in the two products as shown in Table 8.

Table-8 Oil Off-Flavor Percentages Observed By Consumers

At 3-Weeks Control Product Consumers Detected Off-Oil Flavor
a

At 12-Weeks pValue Control Product 17%a Test Product 23%a P- Value

Test Product
a

14%

15%

0.8285

0.2755

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Tortilla Chip Attributes

Table 9 shows the product attributes for tortilla chips at 3 weeks. All attributes were similar except chip flavor. The test product had a Hedonic score of 6.09 while the control had a score of 5.61. Both scores were high, although the control product scored lower.

Table 9 Sensory Attribute Means for Potato Chips at 3 Weeks

Attribute (Scale 1-9)
Aroma Appearance Overall Opinion Crispness Chip Flavor Oil Flavor Acceptability Oily Mouth feel

Control Product
6.15 a 6.19 a 5.77 a 6.49 b 5.61 a 5.76 a 5.86
a

Test Product
5.90 a 6.30 a 6.20 a 6.76 a 6.09 a 5.91 a 5.97
a

p-Value
0.2603 0.3569 0.0612 0.1575 0.0423 0.4194 0.5246

The attribute averages of the tortilla chips at 12 weeks consumer test are listed in Table-10. The overall opinion score indicates consumer preference for the control product. The overall opinion score for the control tortilla chips was 6.41 and that for the test product was 5.89. Statistically, these averages appear to be different but the absolute score of 5.89 for the test product is high on the Hedonic scale. The consumers do not dislike the test product even though it scored slightly lower than the control. The tortilla chip flavor score showed a preference for the control product. Control tortilla chip flavor had a mean score of 6.34 and that for the test product was 5.87. Here again, the absolute value of chip flavor for the test product was quite high on a Hedonic scale. The oil flavor score of the control product was higher (5.99) than that of the test product (5.54). Looking at the oil off-flavor data In Table-8, the test and control products did not indicate any off-oil flavor in terms of the respondents who detected it.

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Table 10 Sensory Attribute Means for Tortilla Chips at 12 Weeks

Attribute (Scale 1-9)
Aroma Overall Opinion Crispness Chip Flavor Oil Flavor Acceptability Oily Mouth feel

Control Product
5.82 a 6.41 a 6.74 a 6.34 5.99a 5.68
a a

Test Product
5.44 b 5.89 a 6.78 b 5.87 b 5.54 b 5.72
a

p-Value
0.0718 0.0223 0.8118 0.0265 0.0046 0.7926

Tortilla Chip Oil Analysis

The fresh oil and the fryer oil analyses plus the tocopherols and total polar material analyses for the tortilla chips production are listed in Table 11. The results indicate that the test oil retained more tocopherols than control. The detail is discussed below: 1. There was a loss of 31.4 % of the alfa tocopherol in the oil for the control product and that for the test product was 0.78%. 2. As in the case of potato chips, the biggest difference was noted in the gamma tocopherol level. The control oil lost 39.1% of the original gamma tocopherol while the test oil lost only 4.5%. Gamma tocopherol is the most effective tocopherol against autoxidative degradation of the oil as well as the product fried in it. 3. The combined loss of tocopherols was 33.4% of the initial in the test product oil while that for the control was 2.1%. 4. Total polar material (TPM) was 4.7% in the fresh oil, which is typical. The TPM in the control oil at the time of product collection was 13.1% in the control oil and 11.9% in the test oil.

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Table - 11 Oil Analysis in Tortilla Chips Production

Analysis Fresh Oil Fryer Oil (At Sample Collection) Control Product Tocopherols, PPM Alfa Beta Gamma Delta Total 382 4 220 10 616 262 4 134 10 410 Loss % 31.4 None 39.1 None 33.4 Test Product 379 4 210 10 603 Loss % 0.78 None 4.5 None 2.1

Control Total Polar Material (TPM), % FFA, % 4.3 13.1

Test Tortilla Chip 11.9 0.22

0.04

Note: The test oil retained significantly higher level of gamma tocopherol compared to the control oil. This should have helped maintain better oil flavor acceptability for the test product. The data in Table 10 indicates that the test product had less acceptable oil flavor. There appears to be a strong anomaly in terms of oil degradation and oil flavor acceptability score in tortilla chips as reported by the consumers. It appears that the consumer dislike in white corn tortilla chips product might have made several of the consumers less objective about the flavor of the product.

Tortilla Chip Product Analysis

The tortilla chips were analyzed at 3 weeks and 12 weeks for: Moisture content Salt content Oil content Hexanal content

The results are shown in Table 12.

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One can notice from the data in Table 12 that there was no significant difference between the test product and control in their moisture, salt and oil and hexanal contents. Therefore, it is my contention that the tortilla chips products were essentially at parity.

Table 12 Tortilla Chip Product Analysis at 3 Weeks and 12 Weeks

Analysis At 3 Weeks Control Product Moisture, % Salt, % Oil, % Hexanal, PPM 2.63 0.87 21.6 0.42 Test Product 2.55 0.70 21.0 0.55 At 12 Weeks Control Product 2.65 0.75 20.7 0.50 Test Product 2.50 0.82 22.6 0.52

Concluding Remarks on Tortilla Chips

The code date for the tortilla chips made at Golden Foods is 9 weeks. The products were tested at 12 weeks. The test product did not come out as a clean winner like potato chips but all attributes of the test product maintained a Hedonic score close to 6, which is considered to be a good score. The average sensory attribute scores indicate lower acceptability for the test product at 12 weeks. However, there were several factors involved in the test that need to be considered in order to accurately assess the results. The overall acceptability scores were at parity. The oil off-flavor perception by the consumers was low and same for both products. A significant number of consumers indicated that they were not accustomed to eating white corn tortilla chips and did not care for the products, control as well as the test product. In a situation like this, consumers can offer scores that can confound the outcome of the test.

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Therefore, it is my contention that the test product was equal to control, if not better at 12 weeks.

Monoj K Gupta
Consumer Test 3Weeks091010

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