Colour and appearance of chilled mousse: a factorial study of ingredient and processing effects

Investigates the effects of ingredients and processing procedure on colour and appearance properties of chilled dairy dessert products, namely mousse. Chilled mousse products were formulated via a factorial design involving several ingredients and processing factors. Sixteen formulated dairy dessert mousses were presented to a trained sensory panel. A screening experiment was carried via a fractional factorial design involving eight factors at two levels. The effects were examined by means of graphical half normal plots using the software Design Ease (Stat‐Ease Inc., USA). Five factors were identified as being the more significant factors which were cream level (CRE), mix time (MIX), blue (BLU), yellow (YEL) and red (RED) colouring agent levels. A further full factorial formulation design was carried out involving four factors: CRE, MIX, BLU, RYR (ratio of red to yellow additive) in a series of sensory perception experiments. Results verified by multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that it was the level of cream and colouring agents that were the most significant factors (p<0.001) affecting colour and appearance aspects of chilled mousse.