Consumer Perception of Goat Cheese Using Word Association Technique

The word association technique was used to study the perception of Uruguayan consumers with regards to goat cheese and compare it with the perception of other cheeses sold in this market. For this, 149 subjects were presented with five different questionnaires to complete with their perceptions of the following cheeses Colonia, Parmesan, Camembert, goat and sheep cheese. The instructions were as follows： ＂Please, write down all the words, descriptions, associations, thoughts or feelings that come to your mind in connection with these products＂. Afterwards, these words were grouped into 16 categories： animal, color, like, dislike, eyes （of the cheese）, feelings, flavor, knowledge/consumption, meals and food, occasions, origin, price, quality, rind, smell and texture. Goat cheese was highly associated with factors related to flavor （51.7%） and texture （34.2%）. Participants used a wide range of terms, many contradictory （sour, bitter, strong, tasty, mild, bland, creamy, pasty, soft and hard） to describe this cheese. Such diversity in responses may reflect the difference among brands in Uruguay or lack of knowledge on goat cheese. There was also variation in perception in color categories （27.5%）, dislike （17.4%） and smell （21.5%）. The dislike for this cheese reflected in the choice of words such as ＂stinky＂ and ＂smelly＂ is mainly associated with negative connotations for smell （fetid and malodorous）. Three groups of consumers were identified based on the frequency of consumption of goat cheese. When frequency of consumption decreased, the percentage of mention of the categories like, meals and food and flavor also decreased, whereas the frequency of mention of the categories animal, knowledge/consumption and dislike increased. These results suggest that word association might be an interesting, easy and quick qualitative technique to gather useful information about consumer perceptions of cheese products.

Esterase Activities and Biochemical Properties of Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Goat＇s Milk Cheese in Argentina

Twenty-two lactic acid bacteria （LAB） strains isolated from Argentinean goat dairy products were evaluated for its biochemical properties and esterase activities relevant to flavor development. Streptococcus thermophilus （UNSE314）, Lactobacillus （L.） delbrueckii subsp, bulgaricus （UNSE309）, L. rhamnosus （UNSE308）, L. plantarum （UNSE287, UNSE316, UNSE317） and Pediococcus pentosaceus （UNSE315） strains presented high acidifying activity. All strains tested metabolized citrate and produced diacetyl-acetoin in goat milk. Based on these results, 10 strains with the best performance in diverse technological properties were selected to determine esterolytic activity. In all evaluated strains, esterase specific activity （ESA） was detected on ct-naphthyl （ct-NA） acetate and 13-naphthyl （[3-NA） acetate, propionate, eaprylate and ct-NA butyrate. No activity was detected on [3-NA laurate. The highest values were detected when using a-NA instead of fI-NA derivatives as substrate. In Pediocoecus strains, wide variability in ESA were observed, which were species- and strain-specific. These results allow us to select strains with biochemical properties and esterase activities to design starter and adjunct cultures that contribute to flavor development during cheese ripening, thus preserving the typical organoleptic characteristics of Argentinean goat cheeses.