Analysis of Functional Relationships between Rice Particles and Oral Perception Using Amazake: A Traditional Japanese Beverage of Malted Rice

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine the effects of rice particles in test foods and their visual appearance on oral textural perceptions. One original and three filtered Amazake (a traditional Japanese beverage made from malted rice) preparations were used as test foods. Three physical measurements of the test foods were conducted at room temperature: linear spread test, viscosity, and concentration of rice particles. Results of these three measurements formed two groups with lesser and more filtered test foods. Sensory evaluation experiments using a paired comparison test in 32 healthy young participants revealed the following: 1) the estimates of “grittiness in the mouth” (mouth feel) and “grittiness at a glance” of the test foods also comprised two groups, similar to the results of the physical measurements, 2) estimates of textural “smoothness” resulted in two groups, with a half-range of two items of “grittiness”, and 3) estimates of “sweetness” and “odor intensity” were similar to each other than to the other three items. Functional relationships between physical properties and characteristics of the test foods and sensory evaluation of their grittiness (oral, textural, and visual) of Amazake are discussed.