Quantitative sensory profiling of cooked oatmeal

Sensory profiling of cooked oatmeal was carried out for rolled-oat process optimization and product characterization purposes. The main sensory properties of oatmeal (thickness, adherence to spoon, size of swollen flake particles, uniformity of mass, slipperiness, coarseness, darkness of colour) were included in the group of appearance and texture attributes. Odour and flavour were fairly weak, the terms most often used being toasted, sweet, cereal, and chemical. Rolled oats of five various cultivars differed in the oatmeal characteristics such as thickness, adherence to spoon, and size of swollen flake particle. Two commercial rolled-oat brands varying in their flake thickness (0.54 and 0.77 mm) and cooking time (10 and 15 min) resulted in oatmeals with different texture profiles. Two cooking conditions also tested - adding the rolled oats either to cold or boiling water - profoundly influenced the texture characteristics quantified.