Journal of Sensory Studies ISSN 0887-8250

DEVELOPMENT OF A LEXICON FOR COMMERCIAL PLAIN SUFU

(FERMENTED SOYBEAN CURD)
YAN PING CHEN and HAU YIN CHUNG*
Food and Nutritional Sciences Programme, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China

*Corresponding author. ABSTRACT

TEL: 1852-3943-6149;
FAX: 1852-3943-7246; Sufu (fermented soybean curd) is a cheese-like product that is widely consumed in
EMAIL: anthonychung@cuhk.edu.hk Asian countries. One of the subtypes is plain sufu, a traditional fermented food
whose sensory attributes remain poorly characterized. In this study, we developed
Accepted for Publication November 25, 2015 a lexicon for describing its sensory characteristics. Trained panelists evaluated the
sensory profiles of 12 commercially available products manufactured in 3
doi:10.1111/joss.12187
locations. Sensory data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and
principal component analysis, and 8 aroma, 7 texture, 2 taste, and 5 flavor
attributes were identified and defined. After further lexicon refinement, the aroma
attributes salty, moldy, alcohol-like, and meaty were identified to clearly
differentiate fully aged samples from each other. The texture and flavor attributes
that differentiate sufu were cohesiveness and sesame oil-like, respectively.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
The sufu lexicon helps product developers, researchers, and technologists
understand the characteristics of plain sufu and those positive attributes when
developing new, similar products and investigating quality-control and shelf-life
topics. Because all mature plain sufus examined here presented similar sensory
profiles derived from their major attributes, future studies could focus on distinct
fermentation periods used to optimize products by employing the available
definitions and references. Moreover, the developed lexicon can serve as a tool for
correlating descriptive data to consumer preferences and to facilitating an
understanding of the attributes that drive consumers’ acceptance.

INTRODUCTION
Sufu (fermented soybean curd) is a cheese-like product that
is commonly an element of traditional Chinese cuisine
(Yasuda 2011). The development of this product can be
dated back to >300 years ago in Ch’ing dynasty, China (Rui
2009; Yasuda 2011), and it is now widely consumed as an
appetizer or side dish in China. The typical ingredients of
plain sufu include soybean, rice wine, water, salts, and ses-
ame oil (Rui 2009) and its manufacturing process can be
divided into 4 stages. In the first stage, tofu (soybean curd)
is produced. In the second stage, which is also called prelimi-
nary fermentation, freshly cut tofu cubes (roughly 2.5 3 2.5
3 1.0 cm) are inoculated with sufu fungus and incubated
under appropriate conditions (relative humidity: 71–73%;
temperature: 20–248C) for 48–60 h. At the end of this stage,
tofu cubes are covered with thick and white fungal mycelia
that contain proteinases. In the third stage, moldy tofu cubes
(pehtzes) are embedded in a large amount of table salt to
extract the water present inside the cubes. In the final stage,
which is also referred to as the postfermentation or aging
process, salted pehtzes are submerged in a mixture of rice
wine and brine solution in containers and aged for 3–6
months before consumption (Chung et al. 2005; Ma et al.
2013).
Proteolysis plays a crucial role in producing acceptable
sufu product during the final aging stage (Li et al. 2010; Moy
and Chou 2010). Glycinin (7S), one of the major storage
proteins in soybeans, is partially hydrolyzed to peptides,
amino acids and other small nitrogenous compounds such
as amines during aging (Yasuda 2011). These derived

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Y.P. CHEN and H.Y. CHUNG
compounds contribute to the taste of sufu (Guan et al.
2013). Large quantities of glutamic acid and aspartic acid
were reported in sufu and likely contribute to the umami
taste (Li et al. 2010), but no other taste peptides such as
aspartame were reported.
Similar to cheese, variation in salt content in sufu may
contribute to their texture differences. It is found that the
salt content in sufu not only provides a salty taste, but also
controls its enzymatic activity (Ma et al. 2013) and influen-
ces protein degradation (Guan et al. 2013). As a result, an
increase in the salt content could raise the degree of hardness
and elasticity but decline the degree of adhesiveness of sufu,
whereas a reduction in the salt content could result in
diminished hardness and elasticity but an increased level of
protein and lipid degradation (Xia et al. 2014).
Previous research has studied another ingredient, rice wine.
Li et al. (2010) found that the alcohol in the wine inhibited
the multiplication of microorganisms and slowed the activity
of proteases. Chung et al. (2005) evaluated the volatile com-
pounds in mature plain sufu, and concluded that the pleasant
sufu flavor was due to the formation of the aromatic esters
between alcohol and other small volatile compounds.
Studies involving the flavor of sufu have reported alcohols,
acids, and esters to be the 3 major aromatic chemical groups,
and identified 17 potent odorants using gas chromatography-
flame ionization detection-olfactometry (Chung et al. 2005).
The panel developed terms such as sour, sweet, fruity,
coconut-like, and meaty to describe these distinct odors.
Among alcohols, ethanol is intentionally added during the
production of sufus, but other alcohols such as 3-methyl-1-
butanol, 2-butoxyethanol, and 2-ethyl-1-hexanol are produced
during fermentation catalyzed by various fungal enzymes
(Chung 1999). In the case of acids, most of the fatty acids
detected in the product are released from soybean lipids in the
presence of lipases (Chung et al. 2005). Moreover, acetic acid
is present in high concentration in both plain and red sufus
and has been reported to taste sour (Chung 1999; Chung et al.
2005). Esters, which were identified as the third largest aro-
matic chemical class in sufu (Chung et al. 2005), are likely pro-
duced in the reaction between the acids and alcohols present
and yield the pleasant fruity and floral aroma (Chung 1999).
To date, no single investigation has reported a compre-
hensive list of descriptors for plain sufus, except for the study
conducted by Yang et al. (2002), who presented several
attributes such as “sesame oil-like,” “alcohol-like,” “salty,”
and “umami.” However, the report lacked definitions of the
presented descriptors and quantitative references. A few lexi-
cons for describing other soybean-based fermented products
have been developed and studied in detail (Kim et al. 2010;
Cherdchu et al. 2013; Cherdchu and Chambers 2014). For
example, the aroma descriptor “fermented” was developed
to describe soy sauce (Cherdchu and Chambers 2014), and it
was confirmed by panelists from both Thailand and U.S.A.
Journal of Sensory Studies 31 (2016) 22–33 V
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A LEXICON FOR PLAIN SUFU ATTRIBUTES
(Cherdchu et al. 2013). Other aroma descriptors such as
“alcohol,” “soy sauce,” and “fermented fish” were used by
Korean panelists to describe the attributes of Doenjang, a
Korean soybean paste condiment (Kim et al. 2010).
Frequently, sufu is described as a cheese-like product, so
texture descriptors such as hardness, cohesiveness, and tooth
packing for profiling cheese provide clues for developing a
similar lexicon for sufu texture (Barden et al. 2012; Poltorak
et al. 2015). In the case of the taste attributes of soybean-
based fermented products, descriptors such as “salty,”
“umami,” and “sweet” were developed to describe soy sauce
by panelists from Korea, Thailand, and U.S.A. (Cherdchu
et al. 2013; Cherdchu and Chambers 2014), whereas the
descriptors “salty” (taste), “MSG” (taste), “alcohol” (flavor),
“soy sauce” (flavor), and “roasted soybean” (flavor) were
developed for Doenjang (Kim et al. 2010).
For capturing the characteristics of plain sufu, a lexicon
must be developed that accurately describes its sensory pro-
file. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to (1) iden-
tify and define the sensory attributes that characterize plain
sufu in terms of its aroma, texture, taste, and flavor and (2)
compare sensory profiles among commercial products using
the lexicon developed by trained panelists. This work could
provide information essential for improving the quality and
production of plain sufu.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Sufu Samples
Twelve brands of plain sufu were purchased randomly from
local grocery stores in Hong Kong. The products differed in
their place of origin, ingredients, and moisture content
(Table 1). All products had similar preparation dates and
preserved in sealed glass bottles. Each sufu cube shared anal-
ogous size (2.0–3.0 cm long on 2 sides, 1.5–2.0 cm thick).
Selection of Panel for Lexicon Development
Initially, 54 volunteers (students and staff from The Chinese
University of Hong Kong) were prescreened using question-
naires to evaluate their health status, enthusiasm level, and
availability (Meilgaard et al. 2006). All volunteers had previ-
ously eaten plain sufu, were familiar with it, and did not
object to consuming it. They were firstly screened for their
abilities to discriminate among the 5 basic tastes and 5 odors
by matching test. In the test, the 5 basic tastes aqueous solu-
tions (15 mL), sweet (2% sucrose), salty (0.2% NaCl), sour
(0.08% citric acid), bitter (0.7% caffeine), and umami (0.2%
MSG), and 5 odors (1 drop each of food-grade flavor, placed
separately in a 10-cm3 sealed glass tube), peppermint, orange,
ginger, jasmine, and vanilla were provided in random order.
The volunteers who matched all the tastes and flavors
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A LEXICON FOR PLAIN SUFU ATTRIBUTES Y.P. CHEN and H.Y. CHUNG

TABLE 1. TWELVE BRANDS OF PLAIN SUFUS, INGREDIENTS, AND used to facilitate discussion. Initially, the panel was provided
MOISTURE CONTENT three 2-h introductions (total 6 h) to practice using method-
Ingredients listed ology and terms based on our previous studies on sufu
Brands Origin* on the food label Moisture (%)† (Fung 2004) and on other published lexicons related to fer-
A-1 A soybean, rice wine, salt, 252 6 3d mented foods such as cheese (Barden et al. 2012; Poltorak
sesame oil, water, hot pepper et al. 2015) and soy sauce (Cherdchu et al. 2013). Subse-
A-2 A soybean, rice wine, salt, water 281 6 4f quently, to familiarize the panelists with the characteristics
A-3 A soybean, rice wine, salt, 295 6 10g or qualities (aroma, texture, taste, and flavor) of the sufus,
sesame oil, water
the 5 brands of sample cubes were served in random order
A-4 A soybean, rice wine, salt, water, 259 6 4de
A-5 A soybean, rice wine, salt, 278 6 11f
at room temperature (20 6 28C) and presented to each pan-
sesame oil, water elist. The panelists were instructed to evaluate samples in
A-6 A soybean, rice wine, salt, 281 6 8f this sequence: (1) smell and evaluate the aromas of the sam-
sesame oil, water ple placed inside the sampling cup; (2) cut the sample cube
B-7 B soybean, rice wine, salt, 226 6 3b into 2 halves using the provided small plastic spoon (1/
sesame oil 2 in.), scoop out a complete spoonful of the sample, and use
B-8 B soybean, rice wine, salt, water 242 6 6c
the tongue to feel the sample surface and expectorate; (3)
B-9 B soybean, rice wine, salt, 221 6 11b
sesame oil, water
take another spoonful of the sample, leave it on the upper
B-10 B soybean, rice wine, salt, 265 6 5e front surface of the tongue, compress it against the palate
sesame oil, water, hot pepper once, and evaluate its texture and expectorate; and (4) take a
B-11 B soybean, rice wine, salt, 236 6 11c third fresh spoonful of the sample, compress it against the
sesame oil, water palate 10 times, and then evaluate both texture and flavor. In
C-12 C soybean, rice wine, salt, water 177 6 6a each new session, the panelists were encouraged to present,
Notes: Significant differences of moisture among different sufu brands clarify, and discuss the descriptors for sufu that they devel-
were determined at P50.05 level by one-way ANOVA. Different let- oped in the same session.
ters (a, b, c, etc.) signify different levels between sufu brands. The lexicon was developed for the 5 samples over three
* A, B, and C, are for locations A, B, C, respectively.
new 3-h discussion sessions (total 9 h) according to
† Percentage on dry weight basis (w/w).
ISO11035 (1994), with modification in M value reduction.
Each sample was present in a sequential monadic order.
accurately were next screened by the ranking test designed for Briefly, the panelists were first asked to individually identify
(1) the 5 basic tastes prepared in aqueous solution (15 mL), the descriptors for each sample as specifically as possible,
sweet (2.0%, 5.0%, 10.0%, and 16.0% sucrose), salty (0.2%, then all of the descriptors were compiled into a list. Second,
0.35%, 0.5%, and 0.7% NaCl), sour (0.05%, 0.08%, 0.15%, the list was provided to each panelist for discussion and con-
and 0.20% citric acid), bitter (0.05%, 0.08%, 0.15%, and solidation: newly generated descriptors were added to the list,
0.20% caffeine), and umami (0.2%, 0.35%, 0.5%, and 0.7% incompletely understood descriptors were discussed further,
MSG) and (2) one texture cube (1/2 in. slice each), hardness: and similar descriptors were combined. Lastly, the panelists
Miracle Whip (Kraft Foods), peanut butter (Unilever), and scaled the intensity of the descriptors in the list using a 5-
cream cheese (Kraft Foods). In this test, those 6 sets of samples point line scale featuring 1.0-point increments (Pereira et al.
were served in random order within groups. The volunteers 2015). The results were collected and calculated using Eq. (1):
need to identify the differences in intensities among individual pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
set and then ranked samples from the weakest to the strongest M5 F  I (1)
according to their sensations. Assessors, whose ranking accu-
racy >80%, would be sorted out as potential panelists (Meil- where M is the geometric mean, the square root of F and I
gaard et al. 2006). After the two screenings, 16 volunteers for each descriptor; F is frequency of each descriptor
remained as panelists and received four 3-h training sessions expressed as a percentage (the number of times a descriptor
(total 12 h). During the sessions, the panelists were introduced is mentioned divided by the total number of times); and I is
to additional terminologies, references, and rating scales that the relative intensity of each descriptor expressed as a per-
centage (the sum of the intensities yielded by the entire panel
were used in the subsequent descriptive analysis, but before
for a given descriptor divided by the maximal possible inten-
the lexicon development.
sity for the descriptor).
The descriptors were ranked according to the M value.
Lexicon Development
Initially, 59 descriptors were collected, but the descriptors
From the original 12 brands of products, 5 brands were ran- whose M values below 3.0 were removed. The remaining 22
domly selected for lexicon development. A round table was descriptors formed the lexicon, and were refined through

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Y.P. CHEN and H.Y. CHUNG A LEXICON FOR PLAIN SUFU ATTRIBUTES

TABLE 2. DEFINITION AND REFERENCE STANDARDS OF PLAIN SUFU AROMA FOR DESCRIPTIVE SENSORY ANALYSIS
Reference, name/brand
No. Attribute Definition (standard intensity)*
1 Soybean-like Aromatics associated with cooked 15 mL Fresh soymilk; Vitasoy San
soybean with beany smell, such Sui Soymilk Low Sugar† (6.0).
as soybean curd, soymilk.
2 Fermented A combination of aromatics that are 15 mL Fish sauce; Suree Original†
overripe, rotten, fermented fish (10.0).
sauce like.
3 Moldy Aromatics associated with mold 3.0 g Blue cheese; Danish† (10.0).
growth include sour and blue
cheese-like.
4 Salty Salty food smell, induced by high 15 mL Dark soy sauce; Gold label
concentrate of sodium chloride in Amoy† (12.0).
liquid such as dark soy sauce.
5 Alcohol-like Colorless pungent chemical-like 6.2 g Rice wine, alcohol at 29%
aromatic associated with distilled v/v; Pearl River Bridge† (10.0).
spirits of grain product, such as
the Chinese rice wine.
6 Fish-like Aromatics associate with fish and/or 5.0 g Steamed salted dried fish,
shellfish, such as dried fish, White Herring (Ilisha elongate)†
clams, etc. (10.0).
7 Sesame oil-like A combination of aromatics associ- 6.2 g Pure sesame oil; Lee Kum
ated with nutty, buttery, brown, Kee† (12.0).
woody characteristic of sesame
oil.
8 Meaty Cooked meat extracts and/or broth 4.0 g Boiled pork meat (4.0)‡.
without bloody, may or may not
have a Maillard brown character.

Notes:
* Intensity is based on a 15-point numerical line scale with 0.5 increments, where 0 means “none” and 15 means “extremely strong.”
† Bold characters indicate the brands/species of food used in this study.
‡ Fresh lean pork meat (PARKnSHOP, Hong Kong limited, Watson House) was prepared by boiling meat in portable water at the ratio of 1 g:2.5
mL water for 20 min.

further group discussion (Tables 2 and 3). Standards for dis-
tinct intensities used to describe each attribute were initially
selected by the panel leader from similar food systems. They
then undergo group discussion, and were regarded as refer-
ences after reaching consensus (Fung 2004; Meilgaard et al.
2006). In the case of attributes for which no intensity stand-
ards were available in the literature, new standards were
developed through group discussion. The reference samples
served as “anchors” in subsequent scaling of sufu samples
(Table 3).
Descriptive Sensory Analysis
All panelists had prior experience in lexicon development for
other products, but before the experimental sessions, they
received training (in six 3.5-h sessions, total 21 h) in descrip-
tive sensory analysis of plain sufu. The panelists were
instructed on the definition of attributes and trained to use a
15-point descriptive scale, and they were directed to first
smell a sample and then place (using a white disposable,
odor-free plastic coffee spoon, volume 0.5 mL, Guangdong,
China) a full spoon of the sample in their mouth to evaluate
both texture and flavor. For the sensory analysis, 7 panelists
(4 females and 3 males, aged between 20 and 30 years) who
demonstrated high repeatability and consistency in evalua-
tions were selected for descriptive sensory analysis.
The experimental samples were evaluated over 20 days,
during which 2 sessions were held per day, with a 5-h break
between the sessions. Each brand of sample was evaluated 3
times by each panelist on different days. Bottled sufu sam-
ples to be evaluated were stored at 48C and used within 7
days after opening. Before being evaluated, sample cubes of
each brand were placed in tightly covered, disposable and
odor-free plastic portion cups (25 mL) for 15 min at room
temperature (20 6 28C); the panelists evaluated the samples
at the same temperature (20 6 28C) under normal florescent
lighting in the food preparation laboratory of the School of
Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. During
the evaluation, deionized carbon-filtered water, unsalted
crackers, or fresh carrot slices were provided to the panelists
as palate cleansers.

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TABLE 3. DEFINITION AND REFERENCE STANDARDS OF PLAIN SUFU TEXTURE, TASTE AND FLAVOR FOR DESCRIPTIVE SENSORY ANALYSIS
Reference, name/brand (standard
No. Attribute Definition intensity)*
Texture
1† Roughness The amount of particles on the food Peanut butter, Unilever/Skippy‡ (1.0)
surface. Orange peels, peels from fresh
orange, inside surface (5.0)
Potato chips, Lay’s Classic‡ (9.0)
2† Wetness The amount of moisture, on the Cheese, yellow, American pasteur-
food surface. ized process deli‡, 1/2 in. slice
(2.0)
Strawberry Yogurt; Yoplait Original‡
(10.5)
3† Hardness Force to be used to compress foods Miracle whip; Kraft Foods‡ (5.0)
between tongue and palate Peanut butter; Unilever/Skippy‡
(11.0)
Cream cheese; Kraft/Philadelphia‡,
1/2 in. cube (14.0)
4† Adhesiveness The effort to completely remove Strawberry Yogurt; Yoplait Original‡
samples from the palate (4.0)
Peanut butter; Unilever/Skippy‡ (9.8)
5† Cohesiveness The degree to which sample Chiffon cake; Garden‡ (1.0)
deforms rather than crumbles, Cheese, yellow, American, pasteur-
cracks ized process deli‡, 1/2 in. slice
(5.0)
Dried raisin; sun-dried seedless, 1tsp
(10.0)
6 Rate of melt The degree to which sample melted Cream cheese; Kraft/Philadelphia‡,
in the mouth 1/2 in. cube (6.0)
Condensed milk; sweetened, Nestle
Original, 1 tsp (13.0)
7† Tooth packing The degree to which product sticks Carrot, fresh cut, 1/2 in. slice (1.0)
on the surface of teeth. Potato chips; Lay’s Classic‡ (9.8)
Taste
1§ Salty The taste induced by NaCl. NaCl solution 1.0% (18.0)#
NaCl solution 1.4% (22.0)#
NaCl solution 2.0% (27.0)#
2 Umami The taste induced by MSG. MSG solution 0.2% (2.5)#
MSG solution 0.35% (5.0)#
MSG solution 0.5% (8.5)#
Flavor
1§ Soybean-like The taste associated with cooked Soymilk, Vitasoy San Sui Soymilk
soybean or soymilk with beany Low Sugar‡, dilute with distilled
flavor. drinking water, 1 mL/9 mL (2.0).
Soymilk, Vitasoy San Sui Soymilk
Low Sugar‡ dilute with distilled
drinking water, 4 mL/6 mL (5.0).
Soymilk, Vitasoy San Sui Soymilk
Low Sugar‡ (13.0).
2§ Sesame oil-like The flavor associated with oily, Sesame oil; Lee Kum Kee‡, blended
nutty, buttery or other characteris- with plain tofu; Pak Fuk Beancurd
tics of sesame oil for steaming‡, 1 mL/30 g (2.0).
Sesame oil; Lee Kum Kee‡, blended
with plain tofu; Pak Fuk Beancurd
for steaming‡, 3 mL/10 g (7.0).
Pure sesame oil; Lee Kum Kee‡
(13.0).

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TABLE 3. CONTINUED

Reference, name/brand (standard

No. Attribute Definition intensity)*
3 Fermented The flavor associated with fermented Fine shrimp sauce; Lee Kum Kee‡,
food, that are overripen or rotten, diluted and blended with distilled
like fermented sauce water, 2.5 g/100 mL (3.0).
Fine shrimp sauce; Lee Kum Kee‡,
diluted and blended with distilled
water, 1.0 g/10 mL (7.0).
4§ Fish-like The flavor associating with steamed Salted dried fish, White Herring
salted sea food, such as dried fish, (Ilisha elongate)‡, blended with
clams, etc. distilled water, 3.0 g/200 mL (3.0)k.
Salted dried fish, White Herring
(Ilisha elongate)‡, blended with
distilled water, 3.0 g/40 mL (7.0)k.
Salted dried fish, White Herring
(Ilisha elongate)‡, blended with
distilled water, 3.0 g/20 mL (10.0)k.
5§ Alcohol-like The sensation of the tongue (includ- Dilute the rice wine, Pearl River
ing the spice feeling of the Bridge‡, alcohol at 29% v/v, with
tongue) induced by distilled spirits distilled drinking water, 1 mL/
of grain product, such as the 9 mL (3.0).
Chinese rice wine. Dilute the rice wine, Pearl River
Bridge‡, alcohol at 29% v/v, with
distilled water, 4 mL/6 mL (7.0).
Cover
Rice wine; Pearl River Bridge‡,
alcohol at 29% v/v (13.0). Cover

Notes:
* Intensity is based on a 15-point numerical line scale with 0.5 increments, where 0 is “none” and 15 is “extremely strong.”
† References were initially prepared following that of Meilgaard et al. (2006) followed subsequently by consensus from panel discussion.
‡ Bold characters indicate the brands/species of food used in this study.
§ References were first prepared based on that of Fung (2004) with subsequent modification through panel discussion and consensus.
# Percentage (%) is mathematically [solute (mass, g)/water (volume, mL)]3100%; e.g., 1.0% NaCl solution is prepared by 10.0 g NaCl in 1 L
distilled water.
k The blended fish-water mixture was filtered through sieve (Model: S.T. 18-8, Sieve diameter 15 cm, pore size: 1 mm2, Japan), to prepare the
corresponding reference solution.

Statistical Analysis
Differences between sample means were considered signifi-
cant at P < 0.1 or P < 0.05, or both, in one-way analysis of
variance (ANOVA) followed by the Duncan test, performed
using SPSS 17.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL). Principal component
analysis (PCA) was used for analyzing the data to study their
patterns. PCA was performed and figures were drawn using
R 2.8.0 with the software package SensoMineR v.108.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Basic Characteristics of Commercial Plain
Sufus
Basic information of 12 brands of plain sufu, which were
manufactured in locations A (LA), B (LB), or C (LC) were
list in Table 1, including their origin, ingredients, and mois-
ture content. The ingredients of the products were similar
including soybean, rice wine, salt, and water, and the mois-
ture content of all samples was high (Table 1). The PCA
results (Fig. 1) placed moisture content in the third quad-
rant, opposite to the attributes cohesiveness (texture) and
sesame oil-like (flavor); this suggests that moisture content
might be low in samples whose cohesiveness and sesame oil-
like intensities are high. This result was obtained for C-12:
the product featured the lowest water content (177%) and
was ranked the highest in terms of the intensity of cohesive-
ness and sesame oil-like (Table 5). In Fig. 2, the samples are
sorted according to their manufacturing locations. The
moisture content was highest in the samples produced in LA
(A-1–A-6), >250% on a dry-weight basis, and this was fol-
lowed by the moisture content in LB samples, 220–250%,
with the exception of B-10 (265%). The water content was

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cohesiveness, rate of melt, and tooth packing; taste: salty and

FIG. 1. PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF SUFUS ATTRIBUTES
PC1-PC2 WITH MOISTURE AS SUPPLEMENTARY VARIABLE
Significant differences between the sample means were determined
by one-way ANOVA. “*” Means significant differences at P 5 0.1
level while “**” means significant differences at P 5 0.05 level.
lowest in C-12 (177%), the sample from LC (Table 1).
When both PCA results were combined, C-12 was
observed to be located far in the positive part of the first
dimension. Moreover, the samples B-7, B-9, and B-11,
whose water content was also low (226%, 221%, and
236%, respectively), were located on the opposite side of
PC2. By contrast, almost all samples featuring high mois-
ture contents, such as the samples manufactured in LA,
were located in the third quadrant. This suggested that
moisture content could be used as an index to separate
samples from distinct locations.
Lexicon
The trained panelists developed the following 22 descriptors
for sensory attributes: aroma: soybean-like, fermented,
moldy, salty, alcohol-like, fish-like, sesame oil-like, and
meaty; texture: roughness, wetness, hardness, adhesiveness,
umami; and flavor: soybean-like, sesame oil-like, fermented,
fish-like, and alcohol-like. The 8 aroma attributes were
defined as shown in Table 2. The other 14 texture, taste, and
flavor attributes were listed in Table 3. All 22 descriptors
were subsequently used by the panel to evaluate the 12 sam-
ples (Table (4–6)). Several attributes have been used previ-
ously to profile other fermented soybean products, including
“cooked soybean” and “fermented” for aroma description,
and “salty” and “MSG/umami” for taste description, partic-
ularly for fermented soybean pastes (Lee and Ahn 2009).
Moreover, the aroma attributes “alcohol,” “fermented,”
“fishy,” and “meaty” have been used to describe soy sauce
(Cherdchu et al. 2014), and the terms “alcohol,” “melting
rate,” “firmness/hardness,” and “stickiness/adhesiveness”
were used to describe fermented soybean (Chung and Chung
2007). The samples in this study were also profiled using tex-
ture attributes such as “firmness/hardness,” “cohesiveness,”
and “adhesiveness” that were employed for describing ched-
dar cheese (Barden et al. 2012) or Polish cheese featuring
distinct fat contents (Poltorak et al. 2015). Thus, several
attributes previously developed for fermented soybean and
cheese products by other researchers were successfully
applied to plain sufu. Moreover, other descriptors, including
“moldy” (aroma), “salty” (aroma), “fish-like” (aroma and
flavor), and “meaty” (aroma), were developed and used in
this study to describe plain sufu. Moldy is a type of aroma
associated with the mold growth that presents a sour or blue
cheese-like odor or both, and this aroma could likely be con-
tributed by the volatile compound (E,E)22,4-heptadienal
present in plain sufu (Chung et al. 2005). Meaty aroma relates
to the smell of cooked meat extracts or broth (or both) with-
out a bloody sensation, and it might or might not contain
Maillard browning products. Based on an omission test,
methional (3-methylsulfanylpropanal; CH3SCH2CH2CHO)

TABLE 4. INTENSITY SCORES FOR AROMA ATTRIBUTES OF 12 BRANDS OF PLAIN SUFU

Brands Soybean-like Fermented Salty Moldy Alcohol-like Fish-like Sesame oil-like Meaty
a a ab ab b a a
A-1 5.3 6 2.0 6.7 6 1.2 4.9 6 2.3 3.8 6 1.7 6.4 6 1.5 2.4 6 1.2 3.4 6 1.7 3.5 6 1.5ab
A-2 5.7 6 2.1a 6.1 6 1.4a 5.8 6 1.2ab 3.9 6 1.4ab 4.8 6 1.4ab 2.6 6 1.4a 3.1 6 1.4a 2.3 6 1.0a
A-3 6.1 6 2.0a 5.6 6 1.8a 5.3 6 1.9ab 3.7 6 1.3ab 3.7 6 1.8a 3.6 6 1.5a 4.5 6 2.1a 4.4 6 1.7ab
A-4 6.0 6 2.5a 7.0 6 1.8a 5.6 6 1.5ab 3.5 6 1.0ab 4.8 6 1.7ab 2.5 6 1.5a 2.7 6 1.5a 2.6 6 1.1ab
A-5 6.8 6 2.4a 6.2 6 2.1a 6.3 6 1.0abc 4.3 6 1.1ab 3.6 6 1.5a 3.4 6 1.3a 4.0 6 1.3a 4.1 6 1.4ab
A-6 5.8 6 2.8a 6.6 6 1.9a 6.0 6 1.2abc 3.5 6 1.3ab 3.7 6 1.4a 3.3 6 1.8a 4.5 6 1.7a 3.7 6 1.4ab
B-7 4.4 6 2.2a 7.7 6 1.6a 4.6 6 1.8a 5.5 6 1.7b 3.3 6 2.0a 3.9 6 1.6a 3.3 6 1.7a 4.6 6 1.8b
B-8 5.6 6 2.6a 6.9 6 1.5a 5.6 6 1.4ab 3.3 6 1.3ab 3.5 6 1.9a 3.3 6 1.2a 3.9 6 1.8a 4.7 6 1.4b
B-9 6.5 6 2.0a 5.8 6 1.9a 4.9 6 1.5ab 3.8 6 2.0ab 3.1 6 1.6a 3.7 6 1.4a 3.9 6 1.5a 4.5 6 1.2ab
B-10 6.2 6 2.4a 6.7 6 1.5a 4.5 6 0.9a 4.6 6 1.3ab 3.5 6 2.5a 4.5 6 1.7a 5.0 6 2.2a 4.7 6 1.3b
B-11 5.7 6 2.1a 6.9 6 1.6a 7.1 6 0.9bc 2.7 6 1.4a 2.9 6 1.4a 2.4 6 1.1a 2.8 6 1.2a 2.6 6 1.4ab
C-12 4.0 6 1.0a 5.5 6 0.9a 8.1 6 1.2c 2.6 6 1.4a 2.6 6 1.1a 2.3 6 1.1a 2.7 6 1.2a 2.5 6 1.4ab

Notes: Intensity is based on a 15-point numerical line scale with 0.5 increments, where 0 is “none” and 15 is “extremely strong.” Each value is
mean from n521 responses, i.e., 7 panelists with triplicate evaluations. Significant difference of each attribute among different sufu brands was
determined at P50.1 level by one-way ANOVA. Different letters (a, b, c, etc.) signify different levels between sufu brands.

28 Journal of Sensory Studies 31 (2016) 22–33 V

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Y.P. CHEN and H.Y. CHUNG A LEXICON FOR PLAIN SUFU ATTRIBUTES

FIG. 2. SENSORY SPACE OF THE 12 BRANDS OF PLAIN SUFUS ON PC1-PC2

Only significant attributes (P < 0.1) went into this PCA.

was confirmed to be a key compound that presents a meaty
odor (Chung et al. 2005).
The results of sensory tests showed that the estimated
intensities (<5.0) of both “moldy” and “meaty” were typi-
cally less than those of all other attributes among the samples
(Table 4), except in a few cases. It could be observed that the
“moldy” intensity of B-7 was significantly higher than that
of both B-11 and C-12, and the “meaty” intensities of B-7
and B-10 were statistically higher than that of the remaining
samples, which might be due to the variations in their
methional concentration. The concentration of methional
might also be related to the maturity of the products,
because methional is detected at the end of fermentation
(Chung et al. 2005). The intensity of “salty” was high and
covered a wide range (4.5–8.5) (Table 4); “salty” refers to the
salty food aroma that emanates from products that contain
high concentrations of sodium chloride, such as fermented
soy sauce. The aroma “fish-like” is associated with fish or
shellfish or both, such as dried fish and clams.
The tested samples showed no significant differences in
the attributes “soybean-like,” “sesame oil-like,” and
“fermented” (P > 0.05) (Table 4). Soybean and sesame oil
are both major ingredients used for producing sufu, and
thus the attributes “soybean-like” and “sesame oil-like”
might be closely related to the presence of these ingredients.
“Fermented” is a common descriptor used to describe fer-
mented foods such as soy sauce (Cherdchu et al. 2013), kim-
chi (Chambers et al. 2012), and dairy protein hydrolysates
(Newman et al. 2014). Moreover, “fermented” is likely
related to sufu maturity; volatile nitrogenous compounds,
such as 3-methylbutanamide, that are degradation products
from protein hydrolysis contributing to its final flavor
(Chung et al. 2005; Yasuda 2011) and might be responsible
for endowing the attribute “fermented.” The intensities of

TABLE 5. INTENSITY SCORES FOR TEXTURE ATTRIBUTES OF 12 BRANDS OF PLAIN SUFU

Brands Roughness Wetness Hardness Adhesiveness Cohesiveness Rate of melt Tooth packing
a a a a a a
A-1 2.5 6 1.2 5.3 6 1.6 7.9 6 1.6 6.8 6 1.2 2.3 6 0.9 8.6 6 1.3 5.6 6 1.5a
A-2 2.8 6 1.8a 6.0 6 1.5a 7.4 6 1.2a 5.7 6 1.5a 2.8 6 1.3ab 8.6 6 1.3a 5.3 6 1.8a
A-3 2.5 6 1.7a 5.6 6 1.8a 7.1 6 1.3a 6.4 6 1.3a 3.1 6 1.3ab 9.1 6 1.6a 5.7 6 1.7a
A-4 3.0 6 1.4a 4.5 6 1.8a 7.9 6 1.8a 7.1 6 1.7a 3.7 6 1.7ab 8.7 6 1.6a 5.9 6 1.9a
A-5 3.1 6 1.3a 6.1 6 1.9a 7.7 6 1.0a 6.9 6 1.0a 2.8 6 0.9ab 9.3 6 1.4a 5.6 6 1.6a
A-6 3.1 6 1.1a 5.8 6 1.6a 7.5 6 1.0a 6.3 6 1.0a 2.9 6 1.0ab 8.5 6 1.8a 4.4 6 1.9a
B-7 1.4 6 1.1a 5.4 6 1.9a 7.2 6 1.6a 6.3 6 1.3a 3.7 6 1.9ab 8.8 6 1.9a 5.2 6 1.7a
B-8 2.7 6 1.4a 5.5 6 1.8a 7.2 6 1.3a 6.3 6 1.5a 3.3 6 1.8ab 9.7 6 1.4a 5.0 6 6 1.6a
B-9 2.0 6 1.3a 6.2 6 1.6a 7.1 6 1.3a 6.6 6 1.0a 4.1 6 1.7ab 9.6 6 1.7a 5.2 6 1.5a
B-10 2.5 6 1.2a 6.6 6 1.7a 6.8 6 0.8a 6.5 6 1.1a 2.7 6 1.2ab 9.2 6 1.9a 4.4 6 1.7a
B-11 2.8 6 1.4a 5.2 6 1.7a 7.5 6 1.2a 6.4 6 1.1a 3.2 6 1.0ab 9.1 6 1.5a 4.9 6 1.8a
C-12 2.7 6 1.7a 4.9 6 1.7a 8.4 6 1.6a 7.3 6 1.3a 4.8 6 1.7b 7.9 6 1.7a 5.1 6 1.6a

Notes: Intensity is based on a 15-point numerical line scale with 0.5 increments, where 0 is “none” and 15 is “extremely strong.” Each value is
mean from n521 responses, i.e., 7 panelists with triplicate evaluations. Significant difference of each attribute among different sufu brands was
determined at P50.1 level by one-way ANOVA. Different letters (a, b, c, etc.) signify different levels between sufu brands.

Journal of Sensory Studies 31 (2016) 22–33 V

C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 29
A LEXICON FOR PLAIN SUFU ATTRIBUTES Y.P. CHEN and H.Y. CHUNG

TABLE 6. INTENSITY SCORES FOR TASTE AND FLAVOR ATTRIBUTES OF 12 BRANDS OF PLAIN SUFU
Brands Salty Umami Soybean-like Sesame oil-like Fermented Fish-like Alcohol-like
a a a a a a
A-1 12.6 6 1.5 3.7 6 1.3 7.3 6 1.8 1.2 6 1.1 2.6 6 1.7 2.3 6 1.5 3.2 6 1.5a
A-2 12.3 6 1.8a 5.0 6 1.6a 7.2 6 2.0a 1.6 6 1.2a 2.7 6 1.5a 2.7 6 1.8a 2.4 6 1.7a
A-3 12.4 6 1.5a 3.8 6 1.7a 8.3 6 1.6a 1.8 6 1.8a 2.5 6 1.5a 2.9 6 1.8a 2.1 6 1.4a
A-4 12.4 6 1.8a 3.6 6 1.7a 7.6 6 1.6a 2.1 6 1.7a 2.4 6 1.1a 2.4 6 1.6a 2.8 6 1.5a
A-5 12.2 6 1.5a 5.7 6 1.9a 7.8 6 1.2a 1.4 6 1.2a 2.0 6 1.5a 1.8 6 1.3a 1.8 6 1.3a
A-6 12.0 6 1.7a 5.1 6 1.9a 7.5 6 1.7a 1.5 6 1.3a 2.1 6 1.4a 2.2 6 1.6a 2.2 6 0.9a
B-7 12.7 6 1.5a 5.3 6 1.7a 6.3 6 1.9a 2.2 6 1.6a 3.1 6 1.8a 2.1 6 1.3a 1.9 6 1.5a
B-8 12.2 6 1.7a 4.3 6 1.9a 6.4 6 1.6a 2.4 6 1.7a 2.5 6 1.5a 2.5 6 1.8a 2.0 6 1.4a
B-9 12.4 6 1.7a 4.6 6 1.8a 7.3 6 1.8a 2.5 6 1.6a 2.8 6 1.7a 2.8 6 1.6a 2.0 6 1.5a
B-10 12.6 6 1.6a 5.1 6 1.8a 7.6 6 1.3a 1.8 6 1.4a 2.4 6 1.8a 2.3 6 2.0a 2.2 6 1.1a
B-11 12.6 6 1.3a 5.7 6 1.5a 7.0 6 1.1a 1.9 6 1.7a 2.8 6 1.7a 2.9 6 1.4a 2.0 6 1.6a
C-12 11.8 6 1.3a 5.5 6 1.9a 7.1 6 1.6a 4.6 6 1.3b 2.3 6 1.7a 3.4 6 1.8a 1.1 6 0.8a

Notes: Intensity is based on a 15-point numerical line scale with 0.5 increments, where 0 is “none” and 15 is “extremely strong.” Each value is
mean from n521 responses, i.e., 7 panelists with triplicate evaluations. Significant difference of each attribute among different sufu brands was
determined at P50.1 level by one-way ANOVA. Different letters (a, b, c, etc.) signify different levels between sufu brands.

“alcohol-like” were moderate and in a middle range (2.5–
6.5) (Table 4). An omission test confirmed that the volatile
compound 2-methoxyphenol is an essential component of
plain sufu (Chung et al. 2005), and this compound contrib-
utes to the alcohol-like attribute of samples. However,
“alcohol-like” might also be related to the rice wine used in
producing samples.
Cohesiveness was rated from 2.3 to 4.8, and it was the
only texture attribute that differed (P < 0.1) among samples
(Table 5). The texture of the original tofu used for producing
the sample C-12 likely differed from that used in producing
other samples. Previously, the glycinin structure was shown
to undergo gradual and partial degradation, and the remain-
ing a0 subunit of glycinin and the generated polypeptides
(MW: 30–32 and 10–15 kDa) detected after ripening were
reported to exhibit strong gelling ability (Mo et al. 2011;
Yasuda 2011). In terms of texture, as compared with fresh
tofu (Yasuda 2011), plain sufu was smoother (roughness:
1.4–3.1), softer (hardness: 6.5–8.5), and melted more readily
in the mouth (rate of melt: 7.9–10.0) (Table 5).
Umami and saltiness are the 2 basic tastes detected in sufu
products. Salty taste is contributed by the sodium chloride
added to raw materials during production. Saltiness was
extremely intense in the tested products, and the original ref-
erence scale for saltiness (Meilgaard et al. 2006) did not cover
the level of saltiness detected in samples; thus, the original
15-point scale was expanded, as shown in Table 3. NaCl sol-
utions at 1.0%, 1.4%, and 2.0% were used as the references
for “salty” intensities of 18.0, 22.0, and 27.0, respectively.
Umami, the fifth of the 5 basic tastes, is mainly contributed
by free amino acids and peptides partially hydrolyzed from
soybean protein (Yasuda 2011). Free amino acids are key
flavor-enhancing compounds in numerous fermented foods
(Lioe et al. 2010). The umami taste was reported to be
intense in commercial Doenjang products (Kim et al. 2010)
and casein protein hydrolysates (Newman et al. 2014). Com-
pared with other amino acids, both aspartic acid and glu-
tamic acid have been reported to be present at the highest
level in sufus (Li et al. 2010), and these amino acids were
reported to not only enhance the umami taste and provide a
pleasant sensation, but also act synergistically with sodium
chloride (Lioe et al. 2010). “Umami” was suggested to be an
irreplaceable taste in fermented food. “Sesame oil-like” was
one of the key flavor attributes identified here, and its inten-
sity ranged from 1.2 to 4.6 (Table 6). Umami intensity was
high in C-12, at least twice as high as that in all other sam-
ples, and this might be because of variations in the produc-
tion methods used by distinct manufacturers; in C-12, the
content of added sesame oil might have been higher than
that in other samples.
Similarities and Differences among
Commercial Plain Sufus
To clearly illustrate the grouping among the plain sufus of
distinct brands, PCA was performed on the intensity of the
22 attributes collected from the trained panelists (Table 7).
The factor loadings, also known as component loadings in
PCA, are the correlation coefficients between the variables
(rows) and the factors (columns). Analogous to Pearson’s r,
the squared factor loading is the variance in the percentage
of a variable that can be explained by the factor (Husson
et al. 2010). As shown in Table 7, the majority of the attrib-
utes could be explained by the first 4 principal components
(PCs), with a total covered variance of >75.0%. Most of the
attributes featuring high correlation coefficients on PC1
belonged to either aroma or flavor attributes, whereas on
PC2, they belonged to the texture attribute.
Additional PCA was performed on only the 6 attributes
that showed statistically significant differences, and these
could be explained by the first 2 dimensions (>81% of the

30 Journal of Sensory Studies 31 (2016) 22–33 V

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Y.P. CHEN and H.Y. CHUNG A LEXICON FOR PLAIN SUFU ATTRIBUTES

TABLE 7. PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF PLAIN SUFU BEFORE NOISE WAS ELIMINATED

Principal Explained Sensory attributes (correlation coefficient with absolute value > |60.50|)
Component (PC) Variability Aroma Texture Taste and flavor

PC1 30.03% fish-like (0.89) cohesiveness (0.57) umami (0.72)

salty (0.77) tooth packing (20.52) sesame oil-like (0.63)
sesame oil-like (0.71) alcohol-like (20.94)
soybean-like (0.70)
meaty (0.67)
alcohol-like (20.94)
PC2 22.29% moldy (20.66) hardness (0.87) salty (20.74)
adhesiveness (0.65)
wetness (20.63)
PC3 14.18% Roughness (20.70) fermented (0.81)
soybean-like (20.65)
PC4 8.63% fermented (0.64) fish-like (20.61)

Notes: Numbers in bracket are correlation coefficient in the range of 21.0 to 11.0. Sensory attribute with positive or negative correlation coeffi-
cient corresponds to positive or negative correlation, respectively. Attributes with absolute value < |60.50| are not shown. Attributes with correla-
tion coefficient either >0.5 or <20.5 (i.e., absolute value > |60.50|) are considered important in that dimension, which means the dimension
could be explained by those attributes.

variance) (Table 8; Fig. 1). PC1 explained 54.24% of the var-
iance contributed by the aroma attributes [soybean-like
(0.86), moldy (20.72), and meaty (20.52)] and the texture
attribute [cohesiveness (0.80)]. PC2 explained 27.61% of the
variance, and the flavor attributes loaded on PC2 included
alcohol-like (20.65) and sesame oil-like (0.86) (Table 8).
Figure 1 shows the PCA results obtained using various
sensory attributes, with moisture content serving as a sup-
plementary variable. The attributes “moldy” (aroma),
“alcohol-like” (aroma), “salty” (aroma), and “sesame oil-
like” (flavor) differed significantly among the tested prod-
ucts (P < 0.05) (Fig. 1). The moldy (aroma) intensity was
lowest in the products B-11 and C-12 and highest in B-7.
In previous study, moldy was identified as a key attribute
in soy sauce and showed strong internal correlation with
other flavors (Cherdchu et al. 2013). A-1 had the highest
alcohol-like (aroma) intensity, following by A-2 and A-4.
Because alcoholic compounds might be generated during
the post-fermentation stage, we expect the alcohol content
in mature samples to be higher than that in freshly pre-
pared samples; however, additional experiments are
required to confirm this hypothesis. The salty (aroma)
intensity was lowest in B-7 and B-10 and highest in C-12
(Table 4), and the sesame oil-like (flavor) intensity in C-12
was considerably higher than that in all other products
(Table 6). The attributes “meaty” (aroma) and
“cohesiveness” (texture) differed moderately among the
products (P < 0.1) (Meilgaard et al. 2006) (Fig. 1). The
meaty (aroma) intensity was lowest in A-2 and highest in
B-7, B-8, and B-10 (Table 4). Lastly, the intensity of cohe-
siveness was highest in C-12 and lowest in A-1 (Table 5).
Cohesiveness was also identified as one of the main attrib-
utes in reduced-fat cheeses (Poltorak et al. 2015).
Examination of the relationships between the origin of the
plain sufus and their attributes revealed that products of a
similar origin tended to show similar sensory profiles,
whereas other products did not (Fig. 2). The variation in the
moisture content of the products (Table 1; Fig. 1) indicated
that this feature could serve as a potential maker for separat-
ing samples originating from distinct locations. The results
show that all products prepared in LA, except A-4, were dis-
tributed mainly in the negative part and were either above

TABLE 8. PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF PLAIN SUFU AFTER NOISE WAS ELIMINATED
Sensory attributes (correlation coefficient with absolute value > |60.50|)
Principal Component (PC) Explained Variability Aroma Texture Taste and flavor
PC1 54.24% Salty (0.86) Cohesiveness (0.80)
Moldy (20.72)
Meaty (20.52)
PC2 27.61% Alcohol-like (20.65) Sesame oil-like (0.86)

Notes: Numbers in bracket are correlation coefficient in the range of 21.0 to 11.0. Sensory attribute with positive or negative correlation coeffi-
cient correspond to positive or negative correlation, respectively. Attributes with absolute value < |60.50| are not shown. Attributes with correla-
tion coefficient either >0.5 or <20.5 (i.e., absolute value > |60.50|) are considered important in that dimension, which means that dimension
could be explained by those attributes.

Journal of Sensory Studies 31 (2016) 22–33 V

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A LEXICON FOR PLAIN SUFU ATTRIBUTES
or below the first dimension, and featured high moisture
contents. Conversely, all products manufactured in LB,
except B-11, were located mostly on the upper side of the
first dimension. The only product from LC differed consid-
erably from products of the other groups: C-12 was located
at the upper right side of the first dimension (Fig. 2) and fea-
tured the lowest moisture content (Table 1). The intensities
of the sensory attributes of the LA products showed no sig-
nificant differences, except in the case of “alcohol-like”
(aroma), “meaty” (aroma), and “cohesiveness” (texture)
(Table 4–6). All products manufactured in LB featured high
moisture contents, but were ranked low for the attribute
“alcohol-like” (aroma). The “meaty” (aroma) attribute of
the products B-7, B-8, and B-10 was strong, and in the case
of B-7 and B-10, the “salty” (aroma) intensity was also high,
whereas the “moldy” (aroma) attribute of B-11 was weak
(Table 4). Lastly, in the case of the LC product C-12, the
intensity of “salty” (aroma), “cohesiveness” (texture), and
“sesame oil-like” (flavor) was high, but that of “moldy” was
low.
CONCLUSIONS
Here, 8, 7, 2, and 5 attributes of aroma, texture, taste, and
flavor, respectively, are identified and defined for plain sufu.
Our findings show that some of these attributes are indis-
pensable for characterizing the product, including
“fermented” and “soybean-like” for aroma, “hard” for tex-
ture, and “salty” and “umami” for taste. The remaining
attributes provide key features for differentiating among dis-
tinct products, including “salty,” “moldy,” “alcohol-like,”
and “meaty” for aroma, “cohesiveness” for texture, and
“sesame oil-like” for flavor. The sensory profiles of the prod-
ucts from Location A are similar, except in the case of the
attributes “alcohol-like” (aroma), “meaty” (aroma), and
“cohesiveness” (texture). The attribute “alcohol-like”
(aroma) is weak in all products from Location B; some of
these products can be differentiated based on the intensity of
attributes such as “meaty” (aroma), “salty” (aroma), and
“moldy” (aroma). In the case of the product from Location
C, the intensity of “salty” (aroma), “cohesiveness” (texture),
and “sesame oil-like” (flavor) is high, but that of the attrib-
ute “moldy” is low, which could potentially serve as an effec-
tive means of separating this product.
Overall, this study presents a starting point in the deter-
mination of the sensory attributes associated with plain
sufu. The lexicon developed here could be used by product
developers, researchers, and technologists to understand its
characteristics and then employ those attributes in develop-
ing new products, modifying other products, and addressing
the quality-control and shelf-life concerns related to plain
sufu.
32
Y.P. CHEN and H.Y. CHUNG
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