Sensory properties of commercially available plain conventional and probiotic yogurt.

The health-relevant properties of probiotic yogurt are often used for sales promotion. However, the consumer preferences of the product determine ultimately its sensory quality. Therefore it was examined with a Quantitative Descriptive Analysis (QDA) whether probiotic and conventional yogurts differ according to sensory properties.Ten trained panelists evaluated over 2 sessions the overall quality of yogurt samples by rating the intensity of sensory descriptors on a 10-unit scale from commercially available plain conventional (12) and probiotic (10) yogurts, served in a randomised order. Consumers¿ preferences were determined by 50 persons applying the paired difference test for preference.Generally, the mean overall quality score of probiotic yogurt was higher (6.1), than the one of conventional products (5.5), but the difference was not statistically significant. This finding could be attributable to the higher sweetness (3.3) and creaminess (3.6) of the evaluated probiotic yoghurt varieties in comparison to conventional products (2.8 and 3.1 respectively).Based on the analytical and hedonic sensory evaluation, it appears that despite of some observed differences in sensory properties, there were no significant differences in consumers¿ preferences between probiotic and conventional yogurt.