FOOD PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: WHEY CHEESE WITH PUMPKIN JAM

In Portugal a very popular desert consists in whey cheese with pumpkin jam. However, these two products are only sold separately, being necessary to join them together so as to obtain the desired product. Having in mind that the production of a combination of these two products would be a potentially interesting field for new food commercializing, studies were conducted on the development of this new food product. This, was complemented with a sensorial evaluation, so as to perceive how consumers accepted this new product, and with a consumer study, in order to understand how the consumers would react when faced with the offer of such a new product. The sensorial evaluation was performed by means of a descriptive analysis, with a panel of 17 tasters, of which 12 were women and 5 men. The parameters evaluated using five points hedonic scales were: homogeneity in colour, homogeneity of the product, milk aroma, intensity of aroma, intensity of taste, salty taste, milk taste, sweetness, consistency, granules. The consumer study was performed by applying questionnaires to 100 persons, of which 57 were women and 43 were men. With respect to the results obtained, the sensory analysis to the product developed showed a good global appreciation, indicating that this product could be successful. Regarding it’s acceptability by consumers, the preliminary results are encouraging, since the major part of the enquired liked the combination of whey cheese with pumpkin jam.