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Food Research International 41 (2008) 930–936

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Sensory and instrumental assessment of Chinese moon cake:

Influences of almond flour, maltitol syrup, fat, and gums
Chunli Jia a, Yang Soo Kim a, Weining Huang a,*
, Guangwei Huang b

a
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology,
International Exchange and Cooperation Program, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214036, China
b
Almond Board of California, 1150 9th Street, Suite 1500, Modesto, CA 95354, USA

Received 30 March 2007; accepted 23 October 2007

Abstract

The objectives of this research were to investigate sensory and instrumental (texture and color) quality attributes and their relation of
newly formulated Chinese moon cakes: California almond flour and maltitol syrup were used as the replacement of wheat flour and
sucrose syrup, respectively and gum was added as the fat-replacer. Sensory analysis showed that addition of almond flour had the most
significant (P 6 0.05) effects on the properties of moon cakes, and the 70% replaced moon cake was most favored by the sensory panel:
almond flavor, color, shininess, stickiness, oiliness, and chewiness increased and hardness decreased. Sweetness and moon cake color
decreased significantly as maltitol syrup replaced sucrose syrup. The reduction of fat decreased shininess, stickiness, and oiliness but
the addition of gums alleviated the impaired attributes. The instrumental data were highly correlated with those from the sensory analysis
for hardness, chewiness, and stickiness (R2 = 0.97, 0.96, and 0.71, respectively).
Ó 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords: Chinese moon cake; California almond flour; Sensory analysis; Maltitol syrup; Gums; Sugar substitute

1. Introduction
Moon cake is a baked product that is unique in shape
with various patterns of special Chinese cultural design
on a shiny surface (Huang, Jia, Huang, & Saitama,
2004). Moon cake consists of two parts: the inside portion,
the filler, can be a red bean paste, mung bean paste, egg
yolk, etc.; and the outside layer, the skin, is made from
wheat flour dough. Well established as traditional snacks
in China, moon cakes are largely consumed during Mid-
Autumn day, a traditional Chinese holiday, with sales over
15 billion RMB (nearly US $2 billion) each year in China.
There are several types of moon cakes. The Guang-style
moon cake is most popular, comprising 80% of the total
consumption of moon cakes in China. Since fresh baked
Guang-style products require several days to reach their
*
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 510 8531 9139.
E-mail address: wnhuang@jiangnan.edu.cn (W. Huang).
optimum texture and shininess, it is not until this time that
they are consumed. However, Guang-style moon cakes are
traditionally high in sugar and fat. As the economy of
China is improving rapidly, people demand healthier prod-
ucts (Han, 2006). Chinese baking industries are facing the
challenges of producing the moon cakes low in sugar and
fat, but with similar or better taste than a traditional one.
In 2003, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
approved a health claim that consuming a diet low in
saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart
diseases. The almond, at 11 g per serving size for either
whole or chopped almonds, is low in both saturated fat
and cholesterol and thus meets the FDA requirement.
American California almonds contain about 20–30% pro-
teins, 45–55% fats with over 90% of unsaturated fatty
acids, 10–15% dietary fibers, and abundant minerals, vita-
mins, sterols, and tocopherols (Lapsley & Huang, 2004).
Sugar syrup, produced by dissolving sugar in water and
hydrolyzed with a dilute acid or enzyme, is a key ingredient

0963-9969/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2007.10.006
 C. Jia et al. / Food Research International 41 (2008) 930–936
and improves color and texture of the Guang-style moon
cake. Maltitol is a low-calorie functional sweetener pro-
duced by hydrogenating-reducing maltose, and has only
10% to thermal value of sugar (Zhang, 1997). Replacing
sugar syrup with maltitol syrup will reduce the calorie of
the moon cakes.
Fat improves mouthfeel, tenderness and shininess of
moon cakes. However, fat, because of its high-calorie
source, has been replaced with lower-calorie substitutes
such as a gum or a mixture of gums in many baked goods.
Gum, a carbohydrate, has strong adhesion and improves
the structure of the moon cake by absorbing water, which
makes a food system smoother; similar to the function of
fat (Yang, Yu, & Gao, 2002). Since it is difficult to replicate
the properties similar to fat using only one gum, two or
more gums are usually mixed for fat substitution. Xanthan
gum mixed with other gums is the most widely used in bak-
ing products (Glicksman, 1991; Lucca & Trepper, 1994;
McClemets & Demetriades, 1998; O’Carroll, 1997; Ward,
1997).
The objectives of this research were: to formulate Chi-
nese moon cakes using California almond flour and malti-
tol as the replacement of wheat flour and sucrose,
respectively, and the addition of gums as the fat-replacer;
and to investigate their influences on some quality attri-
butes of newly formulated moon cakes; and to investigate
how well the sensory analysis data will relate to those mea-
sured by an instrumental texture analyzer and a Minolta
camera for color values, so that the sensory attributes
can be estimated from the instrumental testing method.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Ingredients and their properties
High-gluten wheat flour was purchased from Fortune
Family Food Company (Zhangjiagang, China). Dough
properties, determined by a Brabender Farinograph
according to International Organization for Standardiza-
tion (ISO) Approved Method 5530-1-1988 (1997), were
Table 1
Experimental design of moon cakes with four ingredients and three levels
Experimental design Almond flour replacementa (%)
F1 10
F2 40
F3 70
F4 70
F5 10
F6 40
F7 40
F8 70
F9 10
a
Percent of almond flour replacing wheat flour and % of maltitol syrup replacing sucrose syrup.
b
Percent of fat reduced based on total oil content (30% of flour weight).
c
Percent (of flour weight) of a mixture of gums (Xanthan gum and Arabic gum = 1:1) added.
931
water absorption (66.6%), development time (14.0 min),
mixing stability time (18.9 min), and setback (20 Brabender
Unit, BU).
The almond flour was provided by the Almond Board of
California, USA. The other ingredients were purchased
from various companies in China, i.e., sugar syrup
(GuanZhong Food Ltd., Shanghai), maltitol syrup
(GuanZhong Food Ltd., Shanghai), peanut oil (Jiali Grain
and Oil Industry Ltd., Shanghai), ‘kansui’ (alkali water
containing sodium and potassium carbonates, pH 12.6)
(Guangzhou Xingu Refined Chemistry Ltd., Guangzhou),
and Xanthan and Arabic gums (Danisco Co., Kunshan).
Brix of both sugar and maltitol syrup were determined
with a refractometer (WZS-I, Shanghai Optical Equipment
Industry, Shanghai) according to ISO Approve Method
1743–1982 (1997). Their Brix values were 76% and 78%,
respectively, for sugar syrup and maltitol syrup.
2.2. Methods
2.2.1. Formulations and baking
A traditional formulation of Guang-style moon cake
includes 100 parts of wheat flour, 50 parts of sugar syrup,
30 parts of peanut oil, and 1 part of kansui. From the tra-
ditional formulation, the various amount of almond flour
replaced the wheat flour at the 10%, 40%, and 70% levels.
Maltitol syrup replaced 10%, 50%, and 90% of sucrose
syrup. The fat content was reduced by 5%, 10%, and 15%
of the total oil content, i.e., to the peanut oil content of
28.5%, 27.0%, and 25.5% of flour weight and the gum mix-
ture was added at the 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3% levels (Table
1). The gum mixture contained Xanthan and Arabic gums
at a ratio of one to one.
Syrup and kansui were mixed in a mixer (Shanghai Zao-
miao Ltd., Shanghai), then peanut oil was added, and
finally flour and gums were added into the mixer to make
dough. The dough was rested 2 h and was weighed to
30 g each. Seventy grams of red bean paste was wrapped
with the dough to make one piece of 100 g moon cake
dough. Before the moon cakes were baked in the oven, a
thin-layer of water was sprayed on the surface of the
Maltitol syrup replacementa (%) Peanut oil reductionb (%) Gums additionc (%)
10 5 0.1
10 10 0.2
10 15 0.3
50 5 0.2
50 10 0.3
50 15 0.1
90 5 0.3
90 10 0.1
90 15 0.2
932 C. Jia et al. / Food Research International 41 (2008) 930–936

dough, the skin of the cake. The moon cakes were baked 3–
5 min (Xinmai Mechanical Ltd., Wuxi, China) first in the
oven with 200 and 175 °C, top and bottom temperatures,
respectively. When the surface (skin) color of the moon
cakes became golden, the moon cakes were taken out and
cooled for 15–20 min. After cooling, a thin-layer of egg
was brushed on the surface of the moon cakes, and then
baked for another 8–12 min at 200 °C until brown color.
After baking, they were cooled to 50–60 °C, then wrapped
using plastic sheet and were stored at room temperature.
The sensory analysis (SA), texture profile analysis (TPA),
and color measurement were conducted on the third-day
after baking.
2.2.2. Sensory analysis (SA)
The SA of the moon cakes was conducted, on the third-
day after baking, according to the method described by
Stone, Sidel, Oliver, Woolsey, and Singleton (1974). The
SA was carried out at the Sensory Laboratory of the
School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan Univer-
sity, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. The panel of eight judges was
first introduced to the general guidelines of sensory,
descriptive sensory evaluation, and the experimental proce-
dures, without disclosing information about the samples.
The panel was then trained to evaluate sensory attributes
and intensity ratings based on reference moon cakes of
the Guang-style with the traditional formulation. Eight
sensory attributes were color, shininess, stickiness, almond
flavor, hardness, oiliness, sweetness, and chewiness and the
terms of descriptive sensory attributes were chosen through
discussion among the panel (Table 2). Six reference scales,
developed by the panel, were chosen by comparing the
samples and the reference and were corresponded to the
intensity ratings of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 (0 = the least
intensity and 50 = the most intensity), respectively. The
maximum intensity score of 50 was assigned to the refer-
ence Guang-style moon cake for all attributes. The surface
skin of the moon cake, 2-mm thickness, was carefully
removed for further testing. All of the skins of the moon
cakes were coded using three-digit numbers and were
served randomly. The panel was allowed to approach
Table 2
Sensory attributes and their definitionsa
Attributes Definitions
Color Scale yields from light to dark
Shininess Degree to which the sample shines on surface of sample
Stickiness Degree to which the sample sticks or trends to stick to
anything that touches it
Almond Aromatic associated with almond
flavor
Hardness Force required to bite through the sample after one bite
with the molars
Oiliness Fat layer in the mouth
Sweetness Sweet taste of sucrose
Chewiness Amount of work to chew sample to point of swallow
a
Intensity scale is 0 for the least and 50 for the most.
and taste both reference and samples. Water was used for
rinsing the mouth and palate between each sample. Each
sample was duplicated and analyzed in a duplicate.
2.2.3. Instrumental measurement: texture analysis and color
measurement
The skin (2-mm thickness) of the moon cake was tested
for its textural parameters using a texture analyzer (TA-
XT2i, Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK) at room
temperature. The size of the probe was 1.27 cm (0.5 in.),
the pretest speed was 5.0 mm/s, test speed was 2.0 mm/s,
and the post speed was 5.0 mm/s. The moon cake surface
skin was compressed to 60% of its original height and twice
continuously. Hardness, cohesiveness, and chewiness val-
ues (all in the unit of g-force) were computed automatically
by the data-processing software, obtained with the instru-
ment, i.e., Texture Expert Version 1.20.
The color (L*, a*, and b*) of moon cake surface skin was
measured at four different locations of each sample by a
Minolta Chroma Meter (PG-PIIG, Optical Equipment
Co., Beijing), which was calibrated by using standard white
board and the mean value was recorded. L* expresses the
darkness or lightness (0 is darkness and 100 is lightness);
a*, +a*, b*, and +b* represented the green, red, blue
and yellow color, respectively.
Means for each sample evaluated were calculated for all
sensory attributes (n = 18, nine designs, as shown in Table
1 and two replicates) as well as for instrumental parameters
(n = 18, nine designs, as shown in Table 1 and two
replicates).
2.2.4. Experimental design and statistical analysis
L9(34) orthogonal statistical design with 3 levels of 4
variables was used (Table 1). The effects of different com-
ponents on the sensory attributes and textural and color
parameters were analyzed by analysis of variance
(ANOVA) and the least significant difference (LSD) test.
The results of sensory and instrumental analysis of moon
cakes were summarized with principle component analysis
(PCA). The relations between sensory attributes and
instrumental measurements were determined with a simple
linear regression. All statistical analysis were conducted at
a significant level of P 6 0.05 with the statistical analysis
system for Windows (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Sensory analysis
ANOVA indicated four independent variables, amount
of almond flour, maltitol syrup, gums, and amount of
reduction of fat, significantly (P 6 0.05) affecting several
sensory attributes and data from the texture analyzer and
minolta chroma meter. However, there were no significant
interactions (2-way, 3-way, and 4-way interactions)
observed among four variables for both sensory and instru-
mental measurements (data not shown).
 C. Jia et al. / Food Research International 41 (2008) 930–936 933

Table 3
Effects of replacement levels of wheat flour by almond flour and sucrose syrup by maltitol syrup on sensory attributes of Chinese moon cakea
Sensory attributes Almond flour replacement (%) Maltitol syrup replacement (%)
10 40 70 10 50 90
Almond flavor 31.7a 39.3b 47.7c 39.3 39.7 39.7
Color 30.0a 37.0a 41.3b 41.6c 37.3b 29.3a
Shininess 26.7a 32.7b 40.3c 33.3 33.3 33.0
Stickiness 13.7a 20.3b 26.3c 20 20.3 20.0
Hardness 23.7c 17.0b 11.0a 17.3 17.0 17.3
Oiliness 7.0a 12.7b 15.7c 12.7 11.3 11.3
Sweetness 18.3 18.0 18.3 24.0c 19.0b 11.7a
Chewiness 10.0a 14.7b 18.3c 14.3 14.3 14.3
a
Mean values of two replicates in the same row for each ingredient followed by different letters were significantly different (P 6 0.05). Intensity scale:
0 = least; 50 = most.

3.1.1. Effects of almond flour replacing wheat flour
The three replacement levels of almond flour affected all
sensory attributes except sweetness significantly (P 6 0.05),
as shown in Table 3. The intensity of almond flavor, color,
shininess, stickiness, oiliness, and chewiness increased while
hardness decreased, as the replacement amount of almond
flour increased (Table 3, Fig. 1). It was reported that the
baked almonds contain a unique volatile compound, 2-
methyl-butyraldehyde, which is responsible for the strong
almond flavor (Jia et al., 2005). With an increasing content
of almond flour replacement, the dough contains higher fat
content, contributed by the almond flour and thus, it may
cause significant increases in oiliness and shininess of moon
cake (Lapsley & Huang, 2004). Among sensory attributes,
shiny appearance and hardness, the biting force, are the
first two attributes acknowledged by consumers. The sen-
sory panel had assigned the highest intensity to the six
attributes and the lowest hardness (the softest) intensity
for the moon cake made from 70% of wheat flour being
replaced by almond flour.
3.1.2. Effects of maltitol syrup replacing sucrose syrup
The replacement amount of maltitol syrup significantly
decreased the sweetness and color of the moon cake (Table
3, Fig. 1). The sweetness of the moon cake with the lowest
replacement level of maltitol syrup, i.e., F1, F2, and F3 (see
Table 1, Fig. 1), was the highest; while the sweetness of the
moon cake with highest maltitol syrup, F7, F8, and F9,
was the lowest (Table 3, Fig. 1). The sweetness of the moon
cake decreased as the level of maltitol syrup replacing sugar
syrup increased, because the sweetness of maltitol syrup is
80–90% of sugar syrup, as reported by Zhang (1997). Fig. 1
and Table 3 also showed that the more maltitol syrup was
used to replace the sugar syrup, the lighter the color of the
moon cake was, when the amounts of all other ingredients,
including almond flour, were constant for all three levels of
maltitol syrup replacement. Maltitol syrup cannot brown
the moon cake nearly as much as sucrose syrup, because
it cannot induce a Maillard reaction even when mixed with
amino acids and proteins under heating (Zhang, 1997).

3.1.3. Effect of fat reduction

Fig. 1. PCA of the results of quantitative descriptive sensory analysis. The
first two principal components, PC1 and PC2 explained 74.1% and 18.3%
of variability, respectively. F1–F9 are defined in the experimental design,
as shown in Table 1.
The reduction of fat in the formulation significantly
decreased the shininess, stickiness, and oiliness. At the low-
est fat reduction level, i.e., 5% reduction (28.5% peanut oil
in the formulation), the sensory panel rated higher intensity
scores for all three attributes, when the amounts of all
other ingredients, including almond flour, were the same
(Table 4). At the 40% of almond flour replacement, the
intensity of the shininess, stickiness, and oiliness was the
weakest for the sample F6 and the medium for the sample
F2, and the strongest for the sample F7 (Table 4). Similar
results were found for cakes and cookies (Landis & Alt-
man, 1996). Although Armbrister and Setser (1994) found
that reduction in fat by 50% and 70% increased chewiness
934 C. Jia et al. / Food Research International 41 (2008) 930–936

Table 4
Effects of reduction level of peanut oil and addition level of gums on sensory attributes of Chinese moon cakea
Sensory attributes Peanut oil reductionb (%) Gums additionc (%)
5 10 15 0.1 0.2 0.3
Almond flavor 39.7 39.3 39.7 41.0c 39.7b 38.0a
Color 36.7 34.7 37.0 35.0 38.0 35.3
Shininess 34.7c 33.3b 31.7a 33.0 33.3 33.3
Stickiness 21.7c 20b 18.7a 20.0 20.0 20.3
Hardness 16.7 17.3 17.7 18.0b 17ab 16.7a
Oiliness 15.3c 11.0b 9.0a 11.3 13.0 11.3
Sweetness 18.0 18.3 18.3 19.3c 18.3b 17.0a
Chewiness 14.0 14.7 14.3 13.7a 14.3ab 15.0b
a
Mean values of two replicates in the same row followed by different letters were significantly different (P 6 0.05). Intensity scale: 0 = least; 50 = most.
b
Percent of fat reduction based on total oil content (30% of flour weight). The reduction of 5%, 10%, and 15% results in the oil levels of 28.5%, 27.0%,
and 25.5% in the formulation, respectively.
c
Percent (of flour weight) of a mixture of gums (Xanthan and Arabic gum = 1:1) added.

in cookies, our results did not significantly affect the chew-
iness of the moon cakes by fat reduction. It might have
been likely that the level of fat reduction in our study
was too small (5%, 10%, and 15% reduction, i.e., 28.5%,
27.0%, and 25.5% of peanut oil in the formulation) for
the sensory panel to distinguish the differences in chewiness
or color of moon cakes.
3.1.4. Effects of gums
Adding gums significantly affected almond flavor, hard-
ness, sweetness, and chewiness of moon cake when the
same levels of all other ingredients were in the formulations
from the three gum levels of addition: the intensity of
almond flavor, sweetness and hardness decreased and that
of chewiness increased as the amount of gums increased.
For the samples at the 70% replacement of wheat flour
by almond flour, the increasing amount of gums addition
decreased the intensity of the almond flavor, sweetness,
and hardness of moon cakes: the sample F8 (0.1% gums)
showed the highest intensity, the sample F4 (0.2% gums)
the medium, and the sample F3 (0.3% gums) the lowest
intensity (Table 4). However, chewiness had a positive rela-
tion with the amount of gums added (Table 4).
The gums, a high-molecular-weight polymer, could pre-
vent the release of volatile flavor components (De Roos,
1997; Ligutom, Mesina, & Ganji, 1999). Xanthan, espe-
cially, was well-known for decreasing flavor in food sys-
tems (O’Carroll, 1997; Pangborn, Gibbs, & Tassan,
1978). Due to this well-known characteristic of the gums,
the almond flavor and sweetness decreased as the level of
gums increased (Table 4). In addition, gums can absorb
water and hold water molecules tightly (Friend, Waniska,
& Rooney, 1993; Rosell, Rojas, & Benedito de Barber,
2001), so the addition of which decreased the hardness of
products. Chewiness of the moon cake surface skin
increased with an increase in the level of gums, as a similar
result has been observed in meatballs (Hsu & Chung,
2000).
3.2. Instrumental analysis
ANOVA results of the textural analysis from the texture
analyzer (Tables 5 and 6) were similar to those from sen-
sory analysis (Tables 3 and 4).
3.2.1. Textural analysis
The replacement level by almond flour significantly
affected the hardness, cohesiveness, and chewiness values
obtained from instrumental analysis. Hardness drastically
decreased, i.e., softness greatly increased while both cohe-
siveness and chewiness values increased significantly as
the amount of almond flour increased (Table 5 and
Fig. 2). As the reduction level of fat increased, the cohesive-
ness value increased (Table 6). This result was in agreement

Table 5
Effects of replacement levels of wheat flour by almond flour and sucrose syrup by maltitol syrup on the instrumentally determined textural and color
parameters of Chinese moon cakea
Instrument parametersb Almond flour replacement (%) Maltitol syrup replacement (%)
10 40 70 10 50 90
Hardness (g) 3359c 1881b 524a 1934 1857 1974
Cohesiveness (g) 0.27a 0.34b 0.40c 0.34 0.34 0.34
Chewiness (g) 185a 606b 1041c 586 668 578
L* 58.7c 55.6b 48.6a 53.6 53.9 55.4
a* 3.6a 3.9ab 6.7b 6.6b 5.3b 2.3a
b* 21.5 21.0 20.5 22.0b 21.1ab 19.9a
a
Mean values of two replicates in the same row for each ingredient followed by different letters were significantly different (P 6 0.05).
b
L* value denotes darkness (0) and lightness (1 0 0); a* and b* denote red and yellow colors, respectively.
 C. Jia et al. / Food Research International 41 (2008) 930–936 935

Table 6
Effects of reduction level of peanut oil and addition level of gums on the instrumentally measured textural and color parameters of Chinese moon cakea
Instrumental parametersb Peanut oil reductionc (%) Gums additiond (%)
5 10 15 0.1 0.2 0.3
Hardness (g) 1810 1772 2183 2162 1992 1611
Cohesiveness (g) 0.32a 0.34b 0.36c 0.34 0.34 0.34
Chewiness (g) 608 638 586 478a 611ab 743c
L* 54.0 55.3 53.6 55.9 52.2 54.7
a* 5.9 4.4 3.9 4.4 5.0 4.8
b* 21.4 21.3 20.3 20.8 20.6 21.7
a
Mean values of two replicates in the same row for each ingredient followed by different letters were significantly different (P 6 0.05).
b
L* value denotes darkness (0) and lightness (100); a* and b* denote red and yellow colors, respectively.
c
Percent of fat reduction based on total oil content (30% of flour weight). The reduction of 5%, 10%, and 15% results in the oil levels of 28.5%, 27.0%,
and 25.5% in the formulation, respectively.
d
Percent (of flour weight) of a mixture of gums (Xanthan and Arabic gum = 1:1) added.

related with the cohesiveness values measured by the tex-

ture analyzer (R2 = 0.71).

3.2.2. Analysis of color

Fig. 2. PCA of the results from the instrumental analysis. The two
principal components, PC1 and PC2 explained 68.2% and 24.9% of
variability, respectively. F1–F9 are defined in the experimental design, as
shown in Table 1.
The color parameters L*, a*, and b* by minolta chroma
meter are shown in Tables 5 and 6 and Fig. 2. An increas-
ing replacement level by almond flour significantly
decreased the L* value and increased a* value: the color
of moon cake was darkened and the red color was strength-
ened (Table 5): both are desirable quality attributes.
Although the almond flour had a yellowish color, however,
b* value was not significantly different with an increase in
the amount of almond flour.
The increasing level of maltitol syrup to replace sucrose
syrup decreased red (a*) and yellow (b*) color values (Table
5), as the sensory panel found the color intensity of the
moon cake skin decreased with an increase in maltitol level
(Table 3).
The reduction of oil or addition of gums had no signif-
icant effects on the color parameters (Table 6), as were no
significant changes in color intensity by sensory panels
(Table 4).
The R2 value between color values from sensory analysis
and the instrumental values of L*, a* and b* was 0.59, 0.74,
and 0.06, respectively.
4. Conclusions

with the findings of several studies (Hughes, Mullen, &
Troy, 1998; Pietrasik, 1999). The addition of gums substan-
tially increased the chewiness values obtained by the tex-
ture analyzer (Table 6) as did for the SA-data (Table 4),
probably because of contribution of gums’ ability to
absorb high moisture (Perry, Swanson, Lyon, & Savage,
2003).
High correlations were observed between the results
from sensory analysis and instrumental textural analysis.
The hardness and chewiness scores of the sensory analysis
and those from the textural analysis were significantly
related to each other (R2 = 0.97 and 0.96, respectively).
The stickiness scores from the sensory evaluation were cor-
A traditional Chinese snack, moon cake, was formu-
lated by substituting a part of wheat flour with American
California almond flour, which is recognized to have a
great health benefit by the US FDA. The amount of
almond flour was the key factor affecting sensory attributes
and textural properties of the moon cake. Sensory attri-
butes, including hardness, chewiness, and stickiness, were
significantly correlated to the textural parameters, includ-
ing hardness, chewiness, and cohesiveness, measured by a
texture analyzer. The moon cake containing 70% almond
flour from the traditional formulation was the most
favored by the sensory panel, evidenced by their intensity
assignment on the sensory attributes and it is more than
936 C. Jia et al. / Food Research International 41 (2008) 930–936
enough to satisfy the FDA health claim. The sensory
panel’s decision was in agreement with the data in Tables
5 and 6, showing the highest values for ‘cohesiveness’,
‘chewiness’, and a* value and the lowest value for hardness
and L* value, which are desirable attributes. Further stud-
ies may be needed for fine-tuning the most optimum for-
mulation of the moon cake with quality desired by
consumers, including the eating quality, storability of the
product, i.e., its shelf life, nutritional information in more
details, and also the economical feasibility, etc. before com-
mercial production. The highly significant correlations
between the SA and the instrumental measurements show
a great promise to be able to develop on-line quality mea-
suring device to produce products with constant quality
attributes of final products, moon cake, under the objective
quality control system in the plant.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Almond Board of California for the finan-
cial supports and the almond flour for the joint research
project.
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