JFS S: Sensory and Nutritive Qualities of Food

Variations of the Sensory Profile of Durum

Wheat Altamura PDO (Protected
Designation of Origin) Bread during Staling
ANTONELLA PASQUALONE, CARMINE SUMMO, MARIA TERESA BILANCIA, AND FRANCESCO CAPONIO

ABSTRACT: The typical sensory characteristics of Altamura PDO (protected designation of origin) bread are due
to both the use of durum wheat remilled semolina and the prolonged sponge-dough method based on sourdough.
In this paper the sensory properties of Altamura bread were evaluated during a period of 6 days from baking. A
total number of 24 descriptors was considered. The obtained results indicated that during the whole storage period
many of the desirable characters such as crust consistence, crumb elasticity, crumb cohesiveness, overall aroma, and
sour aroma decreased, while the undesirable stale aroma and crumb consistence increased their intensity. In any
case, after 4 days from the production crumb color, crumb grain, crumb elasticity, and crumb humidity did not vary
significantly.
Keywords: Altamura bread, durum wheat, sensory properties, shelf-life, staling

Introduction essential since they are directly perceived by the final consumer.

A ltamura bread, a traditional baking product from Altamura

(Apulia, Southern Italy), is the first, and still unique, kind
of bread having gained a protected designation of origin (PDO)
in the European Community (European Commission 2003). This
mark is awarded to traditional foodstuffs of proved ancient ori-
gin, which typically is related to a well-defined and restricted geo-
graphic area where the production takes place and where distinctive
characters are present, such as peculiar water composition, specific
endemic microflora, and raw materials deriving from few local cul-
tivars (European Council 1992). Altamura bread, which first men-
tion dates the year 1527 (European Commission 2003), is obtained
from 100% durum wheat remilled semolina of cultivars Appulo,
Arcangelo, Duilio, and Simeto, and is leavened by using a sourdough
starter based on the local microflora, as stated in its official bread-
making procedure (European Commission 2003). This confers to the
product a long shelf-life (Boyacioglu and D’Appolonia 1994; Corsetti
and others 1998; Crowley and others 2002; De Vuyst and Neysens
2005) and distinctive sensory properties (Raffo and others 2003),
usually very appreciated by those consumers increasingly caring for
traditional features of a less industrialized food. Indeed, monitor-
ing consumers in Italy over the period 2000 to 2004 has evidenced
an increasing appreciation for PDO products, that have been con-
sequently classified as a “pulling ahead” category (ISMEA 2005a,
2005b).
Staling of loaf bread usually involves an increase of crumb firm-
ness, so this process can be monitored by determining the changes
of the mechanical resistance of crumb to compression over time, ac-
cording to method 74-09 of the American Assn. of Cereal Chemists
Staleness of bread can thus be evaluated also by means of a sensory
perception test, rating the samples from very fresh to very stale on
a 6 point scale, according to the method 74-30 of the AACC (2000).
Since this method has to adapt to different types of bread, the sen-
sory descriptors are not given in detail.
Up to now, few scientific reports (Boyacioglu and D’Appolonia
1994; Raffo and others 2003) have regarded the evaluation of the
sensory properties of durum wheat bread. Furthermore, no paper
describes the application of this kind of analysis to monitor staling
of durum wheat bread, although it could be very interesting to point
out the descriptors which better can describe this phenomenon and
to verify the extent of the sensory modifications related to this un-
desirable process.
The aim of this work was thus to evaluate the variations affecting
the sensory characteristics of Altamura PDO bread during staling.
For this purpose, the sensory evaluation of a set of durum wheat Al-
tamura PDO bread samples was performed at different times during
the period of time of 6 days from baking.
Materials and Methods
Samples
Twenty 1-kg loaves of Altamura PDO bread were collected at “Di-
gesù” bread-maker in Altamura (Apulia, Southern Italy). Carrying
out the process at a traditional artisan bakery in Altamura ensured
using the specific Altamura natural sourdough, owned from gener-
ations exclusively by the bread-makers in that area (Ricciardi and
others 2005). The loaves were stored unpackaged, as is common
S: Sensory & Nutritive Qualities of Food

(AACC 2000). Nevertheless, bread firmness is only one aspect of the
staling phenomenon and an appraisal of all sensory properties is
MS 20060403 Submitted 7/20/2006, Accepted 1/17/2007. Authors are with
Dept. di Progettazione e Gestione dei Sistemi Agro-Zootecnici e Forestali,
Sezione di Industrie Agro-Alimentari, Università degli Studi di Bari, Via
Amendola 165/a, 70126 Bari, Italy. Direct inquiries to author Pasqualone
(E-mail: antonella.pasqualone@agr.uniba.it).
for Italian typical breads (Pagani and others 2006), for 6 days at
20 ◦ C and 55% relative humidity, and were analyzed both 2 h and
2, 4 and 6 days after baking for their sensory properties and for
their physicochemical indices. Testing unpackaged bread served
to assess the resistance to staling in the most difficult conditions.
Besides these 20 loaves, at each day of testing another 4 loaves
were collected for use as a fresh bread reference in the sensory
evaluation.


C 2007 Institute of Food Technologists Vol. 72, Nr. 3, 2007—JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE S191
doi: 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2007.00293.x
Further reproduction without permission is prohibited
 Sensory profile of Altamura bread . . .
Bread-making was carried out according to the official proce-
dure of Altamura bread production (European Commission 2003),
schematized in Figure 1, using durum wheat remilled semolina
(100 kg), NaCl (2 kg), natural sourdough (20 kg), and water (60
L). Before the final dough was made, the sourdough was added
3 times to increasing amounts of remilled semolina and water,
to progressively increase its leavening activity (refreshment). The
1st step consisted of adding 4 kg remilled semolina to 2 kg of
sourdough from a previous batch, then kneading and leavening.
The obtained refreshed sourdough (8 kg comprising water) was
added again to double amounts of semolina and water for the rem-
nant 2 times and leavened. Before baking, 2 kg of dough were set
aside for the production of the following day. The mean chemi-
cal and physical characteristics of the remilled semolina were ash
0.87% d.m.; proteins 12.2% d.m.; dry gluten 11.1% d.m., and gluten
index 79.
Another 2 samplings were carried out after 15 and 30 d, respec-
tively, to replicate all the experiments and analyses for a total of
3 times (n = 3).
Analysis of the sensory properties
Quantitative descriptive analysis of the sensory properties was
carried out according to standard 13299 of the Intl. Organization
for Standardization (ISO 1998) by 10 trained panelists (5 male, 5 fe-
male, age range 24 to 40 y), expert in bread testing. Prior to actual
sample evaluation, they were selected for their reliability, consis-
tency, and discriminating ability via a pretest session held to as-
sess their performance in testing durum wheat bread (ISO 1994a,
1994b). Samples were presented in coded dishes as slices 1 cm
thick taken from the center of the loaves. At each sensory session
S: Sensory & Nutritive Qualities of Food
Data were subjected to 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)
using Statgraphics 6.0 (Statistical Graphics Corp., Rockville, Md.,
U.S.A.) to compare breads at different storage times. Significant
differences were established at different levels of P starting from
0.05. Principal components analysis (PCA) and correlation analysis
Figure 1 --- The Altamura bread production schematic were performed using S-Plus 6.1 (Insightful Corp., Seattle, Wash.,
flowchart. U.S.A.).
S192 JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE—Vol. 72, Nr. 3, 2007
the slices of breads aged either 2 h or 2, 4, or 6 d after baking
were distributed simultaneously and anonymously together with
the control (fresh bread collected daily) to all panel members. At
each session the slices deriving from 5 different loaves of bread
having the same age were randomly distributed to the panelists
without any replication. Each session has been replicated at dis-
tance of 15 d for a total of 3 times. Fresh bread was not rated
and served merely as reference for the descriptor orthonasal stale
aroma (minimum intensity). The small variations observed in fresh
bread from day to day of collection did not affect the score of this
descriptor.
The list of sensory terms included 24 descriptors rated on an
anchored line scale that provided a 0 to 9 score range. In Table 1
are reported the definitions of each descriptor and their scale an-
chors. Descriptors of appearance (crumb color, crumb grain, crust
thickness), visual-tactile and chewing characteristics (crumb hu-
midity, cohesiveness, elasticity, and consistence; crust consistence),
orthonasal aroma (overall, fresh bread, semolina, sour, toast, stale),
retronasal aroma (stale either of crumb or crust), and taste (sweet,
salty, sour, bitter, referred either to crumb or to crust) were consid-
ered, mainly based on the choice effected in a previous work (Raffo
and others 2003). Part of these parameters (such as crumb color,
crumb grain, crust thickness, overall aroma, semolina aroma, sour
aroma, toast aroma, sweet, salty, sour, and bitter taste) were cho-
sen merely to describe the product while other descriptors, such
as crumb humidity, cohesiveness, elasticity, and consistence; crust
consistence; fresh bread aroma, stale aroma, and stale taste, were
especially selected to monitor the extent of the changes affecting
the breads during shelf-life.
Sensory evaluations took place in a conference room where tem-
porary partitions were used to set up isolated tasting booths for
separating panelists during analysis, according to standard 8589 of
the ISO (1988). Testing was performed at ambient room temperature
(20 ◦ C).
Physicochemical analyses
Crumb moisture content was evaluated according to the ap-
proved method 44-15A of the AACC (2000) on bread crumb removed
by cutting 3 plugs from a center slice and from a slice at each end
of the loaf. Yellow index of crumb was determined by Minolta tris-
timulus colorimeter Chromameter CR300 (Osaka, Japan), consider-
ing the mean of 5 readings of b∗ value corresponding to different
points at the crumb surface. Firmness of the bread samples was
measured on a Universal Testing Machine Galdabini (Varese, Italy),
according to the approved method 74-09 of the AACC (2000). Five
25-mm-height slices were obtained from the central part of each
loaf. Firmness, expressed in Newtons (N), was the force required to
compress the center of the slices for 6.25 mm (25% compression).
Total titratable acidity (TTA) of crumb was measured according to
Boskov Hansen and others (2002), and expressed as % acetic acid.
Each analysis was carried out on 4 different loaves having the same
age.
Statistical analysis
Sensory profile of Altamura bread . . .

Results and Discussion longed sponge-dough procedure and the use of a sourdough starter

T he variations of the scores attributed to the sensory characteris-

tics during the considered period of time are reported in Table 2.
In particular, on the day of baking crumb color with the mean value
of 8.2 was correspondent to a nearly yellow crumb. This color is a
very typical characteristic of durum wheat Altamura bread due to
the use of durum wheat remilled semolina, rich in carotenoid pig-
ments (Pasqualone and others 2004). With respect to the usual color
levels of remilled semolina observed in previous research (yellow
index 19.5, n = 12) (Pasqualone and others 2004), the crumb of the
examined loaves showed a considerably higher yellow index, with a
mean value of 22.1 (Table 3). Considering that bread-making opera-
tions bleach in part the carotenoid pigments, the high yellow index
of the crumb was probably due to starch gelatinization, which ren-
dered the surface smoother and the tint more brilliant, and to the
first phases of the Maillard reaction with formation of colored com-
pounds ranging from yellowish to reddish (Resmini and Pellegrino
1994; Hofmann 1998).
Among the taste attributes, the most markedly perceived was sour
taste, with a value of 4.3 in the crumb, accompanied by a remark-
ably high presence of sour aroma (mean value 5.0) (Table 2). Both
these characteristics are typically related to the traditional baking
method adopted to obtain Altamura bread, which involves a pro-
for leavening (Martı́nez-Anaya and others 1990; Ricciardi and others
2005), with formation of lactic and acetic acid. In the crust, where the
advanced phases of the Maillard reaction and sugar caramelization
occurred, sour taste was overcome by bitter.
Crust appeared to be very thick (mean value 7.1), with a mod-
erately crispy consistence (mean value 6.4), due to the long and
gradual cooking process of Altamura PDO bread (European Com-
mission 2003). Crumb was found to be highly cohesive (mean score
7.0), elastic (mean 7.2), and markedly consistent (mean value 5.0).
The high crumb consistence was due to the tenacious gluten usu-
ally present in durum wheat remilled semolina used for this kind
of bread, as observed in previous research (alveographic P/L 1.13,
n = 12) (Pasqualone and others 2004), as well as to the use of sour-
dough, reported as leading to harder breads than the straight pro-
cess (Armero and Collar 1998). Crumb grain resulted to be somewhat
coarse (score 5.6) due to the process of leavening based on natural
yeast (Crowley and others 2002).
During the period of time examined, the intensity of many of the
desirable characters decreased, while that of the undesirable de-
scriptors increased. Regarding the visual appearance, crumb color
remained stable for the first 4 days but its intensity decreased sig-
nificantly after 6 d of storage. It shifted from almost light yellow

Table 1 --- Descriptive terms used for sensory profiling Altamura PDO bread
Scale anchors
Descriptor Definition min (0) max (9)
Visual appearance
Crumb color Color intensity of crumb Whitish Light yellow
Crumb grain Cell structure of crumb grain Fine and uniform grain Coarse and poorly homogeneous
Crust thickness Crust depth Very thin Very thick
Visual-tactile and chewing characteristics
Crust consistency The way the crust fractures, when broken by Saggy and gummy: it bends Hard and crispy: it breaks
fingers and when chewed
Crumb humidity Amount of moisture perceived by fingers at the Very dry Very humid
surface of crumb and in the mouth during
chewing
Crumb cohesiveness The way the crumb reacts when broken by Poorly cohesive, it crumbles Very cohesive, it does not crumble
fingers
Crumb elasticity Ability of the crumb to recover from Slow and partial recover Fast and complete recover
compression exerted by fingers
Crumb consistence Consistence of crumb evaluated during chewing Soft and easily yielding to Tough and firm in resisting, it breaks
pressure, it is elastic
Orthonasal aroma
Overall The intensity of the overall aromatics perceived Weak Strong
at the same time
Fresh bread The typical aroma of bread just taken out of the Weak Strong
oven
Semolina An aromatic characteristic of semolina None Strong
Sour The aromatics associated with fermented sour None Strong
substances
Toast The aromatics associated with a toasted bread None Strong
Stale The aromatics associated with loosing of bread None Strong
freshness
Retronasal aroma
Stale crumb The volatile flavor associated with loosing of None Strong
bread freshness evaluated when the crumb is
in the mouth
S: Sensory & Nutritive Qualities of Food

Stale crust The volatile flavor associated with loosing of None Strong
bread freshness evaluated when the crust is
in the mouth
Taste attributes (evaluated separately on crumb and crust)
Sour Basic taste produced by acid substances None Strong
Salty Basic taste produced by sodium chloride None Strong
Sweet Basic taste produced by sugars None Strong
Bitter Basic taste perceivable at the base of the None Strong
tongue in the rear of the mouth

Vol. 72, Nr. 3, 2007—JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE S193

 Sensory profile of Altamura bread . . .

to a paler tone due to the increase of opacity related to the loss of
humidity. The sensory evaluation of the crumb color appeared to
be significantly correlated to the colorimetric determination of this
characteristic (r = 0.91; P < 0.001) (Table 3). Crumb grain did not
vary significantly during the 1st 4 d, becoming slightly thinner af-
ter 6 d due to a shrinkage effect, already reported by other authors
(Crowley and others 2002), and related to the starch retrogradation
and humidity loss. Crust thickness, as expected, remained almost
unvaried during 6 d of storage.
Regarding the visual-tactile and chewing characteristics, crust
consistency did not change for the first 2 d, and at the 4th day be-
came significantly softer, assuming a leathery consistency, probably
due to the redistribution of moisture between the crumb and the
crust induced by the humidity gradient between the internal and
the external part of the loaves (Kulp and Ponte 1981).
Crumb cohesiveness decreased at the 2nd day of storage, with an
enhanced tendency to crumble, and remained unchanged the fol-
lowing days. Crumb consistency was found to be stable for the first
2 d and crumb elasticity for 4 d, indicating a slow staling, which was
probably related to the effect of biological acidification by lactic bac-
teria of sourdough, known to delay starch retrogradation (Corsetti
and others 1998; De Vuyst and Neysens 2005). Crumb consistency
was negatively related to both elasticity (r = –0.82, P < 0.01) and
cohesiveness (r = –0.89, P < 0.001). The instrumental measures of
crumb firmness (Table 3) confirmed the results of sensory evalua-
tion (r = 0.98, P < 0.001).
Crumb humidity did not vary significantly with respect to the day
of baking during the first 4 days of storage, then decreased. It was
negatively correlated to crumb consistency (r = –0.74, P < 0.01).
The progressive crumb drying, detected by sensory evaluation, was
in very good accordance (r = 0.91; P < 0.001) with the results of the
analytical determination of crumb moisture (Table 3).
Regarding orthonasal aroma attributes, the intensity of overall
aroma decreased progressively during all the period of storage,
while that of stale increased. Retronasal stale aroma was perceiv-
able after 2 d from baking, contemporarily in the crumb and in
the crust, and its intensity further increased after 6 d. The devel-
opment of the uncharacteristic flavor of low acceptability was prob-
ably due to oxidative phenomena (Kulp and Ponte 1981), mainly
involving carbonyl compounds (Martı́nez-Anaya 1996), as well as
to the reported production of β-ionones by oxidation of carotenoid
pigments (Martı́nez-Anaya 1996). Stale retronasal aroma perceived

Table 2 --- Variations of the sensory parameters during time elapsed from baking (n = 3)
Time elapsed from baking (d)
Descriptor 0 (2 h) 2 4 6
Visual appearance
Crumb color∗ ∗ ∗ 8.2 ± 0.4a 7.9 ± 0.4a 7.8 ± 0.5a 6.5 ± 0.5b
Crumb grain∗ ∗ 5.6 ± 0.7a 5.2 ± 0.8ab 4.9 ± 0.7ab 4.5 ± 0.5b
Crust thicknessNS 7.1 ± 0.4 6.8 ± 0.7 6.7 ± 0.5 6.8 ± 0.7
Visual-tactile and chewing characteristics
Crust consistency∗ ∗ ∗ 6.4 ± 0.5ab 6.0 ± 0.6b 5.3 ± 0.5 c 5.5 ± 0.5ac
Crumb humidity∗ ∗ ∗ 6.7 ± 0.5a 5.6 ± 0.7ab 6.0 ± 0.6 ab 5.1 ± 0.8b
Crumb cohesiveness∗ ∗ ∗ 7.0 ± 0.5a 6.5 ± 0.8b 5.8 ± 0.7 b 4.9 ± 0.7b
Crumb elasticity∗ ∗ ∗ 7.2 ± 0.4a 7.0 ± 0.5a 6.7 ± 0.5ab 5.8 ± 0.7b
Crumb consistency∗ ∗ ∗ 5.0 ± 0.5a 5.6 ± 0.7ab 6.1 ± 0.6b 8.2 ± 0.4c
Orthonasal aroma attributes
Overall aroma∗ ∗ ∗ 7.2 ± 0.5a 6.3 ± 0.5b 5.4 ± 0.5c 3.8 ± 0.7d
Fresh bread aroma∗ ∗ ∗ 6.2 ± 0.4a 4.5 ± 0.5b 4.5 ± 0.5b 2.3 ± 0.5c
Semolina aroma∗ ∗ ∗ 3.1 ± 0.4a 2.6 ± 0.5ab 2.1 ± 0.4bc 1.9 ± 0.4c
Sour aroma∗ ∗ ∗ 5.0 ± 0.4a 4.4 ± 0.5a 3.4 ± 0.5b 2.6 ± 0.5b
Toast aroma∗ ∗ ∗ 2.8 ± 0.5a 2.1 ± 0.4ab 1.8 ± 0.5b 1.5 ± 0.5b
Stale aroma∗ ∗ ∗ 0.0 ± 0.0a 1.2 ± 0.5b 2.1 ± 0.4c 4.5 ± 0.5d
Retronasal aroma attributes
Stale crumb∗ ∗ ∗ 0.0 ± 0.0a 1.1 ± 0.6b 1.8 ± 0.5b 3.3 ± 0.5c
Stale crust∗ ∗ ∗ 0.0 ± 0.0a 1.3 ± 0.5b 1.8 ± 0.5b 2.5 ± 0.6c
Taste attributes of crumb
Sour taste∗ ∗ ∗ 4.3 ± 0.5a 4.1 ± 0.5a 3.3 ± 0.7b 2.8 ± 0.4b
Salty taste∗ ∗ 3.3 ± 0.5a 2.4 ± 0.5b 2.2 ± 0.4b 1.9 ± 0.4b
Sweet taste∗ 2.3 ± 0.5a 2.2 ± 0.4ab 1.8 ± 0.5bc 1.7 ± 0.5c
Bitter tasteNS 1.1 ± 0.6 1.0 ± 0.6 1.1 ± 0.6 1.2 ± 0.7
Taste attributes of crust
Sour taste∗ ∗ ∗ 2.7 ± 0.5a 2.2 ± 0.4ab 1.8 ± 0.5bc 1.3 ± 0.5c
Salty tasteNS 2.8 ± 0.5 2.6 ± 0.5 2.5 ± 0.5 2.4 ± 0.5
Sweet tasteNS 1.8 ± 0.5 1.6 ± 0.5 1.4 ± 0.5 1.3 ± 0.5
Bitter taste∗ ∗ 3.8 ± 0.5a 3.7 ± 0.4ab 3.5 ± 0.4ab 3.2 ± 0.3b
a−d
Different superscript letters in row indicate significant differences (∗ ∗ ∗ , ∗ ∗ , and ∗ indicate P < 0.001, 0.01, and 0.05, respectively; NS = not significant).
S: Sensory & Nutritive Qualities of Food

Table 3 --- Variations of crumb humidity, color, and firmness during 6 days from baking (n = 3)
Time elapsed from baking (d)
0 (2 h) 2 4 6
Moisture (%) 47.22 ± 1.61 a
41.08 ± 1.29 ab
42.97 ± 1.69 b
40.18 ± 1.15b
Color (b∗ ) 22.1 ± 0.9a 21.7 ± 0.5ab 21.8 ± 0.6ab 19.4 ± 0.6b
Firmness (N) 9.95 ± 0.51a 12.54 ± 1.55ab 18.46 ± 1.54b 29.23 ± 2.62c
Total titratable acidity (% acetic acid) 0.40 ± 0.02a 0.38 ± 0.02ab 0.33 ± 0.02bc 0.32 ± 0.02c
a−c
Different superscript letters in row indicate significant differences at P < 0.001.

S194 JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE—Vol. 72, Nr. 3, 2007

Sensory profile of Altamura bread . . .
in the crumb was negatively related to sour aroma (r = −0.95,
P < 0.001), fresh bread aroma (r = −0.98, P < 0.001), sour taste
(r = −0.90, P < 0.001), crumb elasticity (r = −0.87, P < 0.001),
crumb cohesiveness (r = −0.93, P < 0.001), and crumb humidity (r =
−0.78, P < 0.01); positively correlated to crumb consistency (r = 0.95,
P < 0.001). The same behavior was found for the other undesirable
aroma noticed during staling.
The typical fresh bread aroma, due to the formation of many odor-
ous compounds deriving from the flour components by means of
both the catabolic activity of yeast, during leavening, and the ther-
mal effect of cooking (Maga 1975; Martı́nez-Anaya 1996; Thiele and
others 2002), diminished after 2 d, then remained unchanged until
4 d, and almost disappeared at the end of the storage period. The
decrease observed during resting was imputable to the occurrence
of interactions between aroma components and macromolecules
such as amylose (Kulp and Ponte 1981; Martı́nez-Anaya 1996) and,
in minor part, by volatilization.
Figure 2 --- (A) Projection of the samples on the 1st 2 prin-
cipal components, PC1 and PC2. Numbers (0, 2, 4, and
6) indicate storage days. (B) Projection of sensory at-
tributes on the 1st 2 principal components, PC1 and PC2;
1: crumb consistency; 2: stale orthonasal aroma; 3: stale
retronasal aroma of crumb; 4: stale retronasal aroma of
crust; 5: bitter taste of crumb; 6: crumb elasticity; 7:
crumb color; 8: fresh bread orthonasal aroma; 9: crumb
cohesiveness; 10: overall orthonasal aroma; 11: crumb
humidity; 12: toast orthonasal aroma; 13: sweet taste of
crumb; 14: bitter taste of crust; 15: semolina orthonasal
aroma; 16: sour orthonasal aroma; 17: crumb grain; 18:
sour taste of crumb; 19: sour taste of crust; 20: salty taste
of crumb; 21: sweet taste of crust; 22: salty taste of crust;
23: crust consistency; 24: crust thickness.
Sour aroma decreased only after 4 d of storage, and maintained
about the same level also after 6 d. The typical taste attribute of Al-
tamura bread, namely sour taste of crumb, showed a similar trend
and was in accordance with the chemical determination of acidity
(Table 3) (r = 0.93, P < 0.001). The other taste descriptors changed
slightly in the breads examined during the period of storage con-
sidered. Bitter taste of the crumb, sweet taste, and salty taste of
the crust did not vary significantly during the whole storage pe-
riod considered, and bitter taste of the crust diminished only after
6 d.
To better identify the general trends and effect of time, PCA was
carried out. Figure 2A and 2B report the projection of the samples
and that of sensory data, respectively, on the 1st 2 principal compo-
nents. It was possible to extract a component (PC1) accounting for
more than 89% of the variability. The distribution of the samples,
clearly differentiated according to storage time, indicated that PC1
was related to this parameter. Besides, Figure 2B shows the posi-
tive relation between PC1 and some undesired characteristics such
as crumb consistency and stale orthonasal and retronasal aroma,
whose mean scores increased significantly during storage. On the
contrary, a negative correlation was present between PC1 and some
descriptors such as overall aroma and fresh bread aroma that were
more intense in the freshly baked product.
In conclusion, the desirable sensory characteristics, particu-
larly the visual appearance and visual-tactile/chewing character-
istics, generally remained unchanged for 4 d after the production.
Considering the total absence of improvements in the formulation
of Altamura bread (European Commission 2003), it had a shelf-life
considerably longer than that of other products of the same cate-
gory with much faster staling rate such as, for example, white pan
breads which are considered by the major companies marketable
only within 48 hours from baking (Kulp and Ponte 1981). This spe-
cial characteristic of Altamura PDO bread can enable its market-
ing outside the production area by fast shipping to many national
and international destinations. In that case, even though the ab-
sence of packaging is a common and peculiar feature of typical
Italian breads (Pagani and others 2006), setting up a proper pack-
aging would be necessary to achieve further improvement of shelf-
life.
Acknowledgments
The authors are indebted to Panificio Digesù of Altamura (Bari, Italy)
for accurately preparing the examined breads.
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