Résumé
Unbalanced diets with an overconsumption of fat, salt and sugars contribute to the development of pathologies. As a consequence, healthcare authorities advocate salt, fat and sugar reduction in food, but this often leads to less tasty products. Several strategies are currently investigated to design healthier food while maintaining taste and consumer liking. The strategy relying on cross-modal sensory compensation is being tested within the framework of the EU-TeRiFiQ research project. The main objective is to evaluate whether an optimisation texture, taste and aroma could help to maintain especially salt or fat perception in low-fat-salt food. Here we set out to examine whether a modification of texture and sourness, combined with aroma addition modulate salt and fat perception but also consumer liking of model cheeses. The products were prepared according to a full-factorial design with 2 fat (20 and 40%), 2 salt (0.5 and 1.5%) and 2 pH (5.0 and 6.2) levels. In addition, these products were flavoured with either a sardine aroma (associated to salt), a butter aroma (associated to fat) or not flavoured (control). Thirty two consumers were asked to rate taste, texture and aroma attributes, as well as their liking, in a dedicated session, for the 24 samples. The results confirmed that both rheological and sensory texture were modified according to salt, fat and pH level (p<0.0001). The comparison of salty taste intensity between flavoured and unflavoured products showed a significant saltiness enhancement by sardine aroma (p=0.004) and an increased perception of fat in butter-flavoured cheeses. Moreover, butter-flavoured cheeses were found to have a higher liking score compared to sardine-flavoured cheeses (p<0.0001). Overall, the results clearly show that a well-though manipulation of texture and aroma can be an efficient strategy to compensate for sensory and liking losses in low-fat-salt food products.