Application of Multivariate Statistical Analysis to Chemical, Physical and Sensory Characteristics of Majorcan Cheese

The chemical composition and the physical and sensory characteristics of three types of Majorcan cheese (half-ripened, ripened and old-ripened) were studied. In total, 22 parameters (7 chemical, 7 physical and 8 sensory) were evaluated using ANOVA and Tukey's multiple range test. Only 15 variables exhibited significant changes (p<0.001) during ripening. Principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis of variables (CAV) and stepwise discriminant analysis (SDA) were applied to estimate the usefulness of the chemical, physical and sensory determinations for the differentiation and classification of Majorcan cheeses. PCA allowed the reduction of 15 variables to 3 independent components accounting for the 85.6% of the explained variation. The first principal component was representative of the ripening stage. CAV confirmed the correlation between the studied variables obtained by PCA. Using SDA it was determined which variables best classified the cheese samples according to their ripening stage. Finally, the classification functions allowed the correct classification of 93.5% of the cheese samples.