Eating Quality Advantages of Wuchang Rice as Evaluated by Rate-All-That-Apply and Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Abstract

In order to explore the superior eating quality of Wuchang rice, the preference ranking test and a modified version of Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) were used to study the differences in the overall preference and sensory attributes between rice from different townships in Wuchang city and between Wuchang rice and rice from other regions. Principal component analysis (PCA) and classification and regression tree (CART) were combined to classify rice from different regions. The results showed that rice from different regions had different sensory characteristics. Wuchang rice had a sweet and clean taste, smooth and elastic texture, and strong aroma. Its eating quality was significantly superior to that of rice from other regions. A total of 12 sensory attributes including appearance (fullness, completeness, and looseness), odor (rice-like, clean aroma), taste (sweetness and sweet aftertaste), and texture characteristics (stickiness palatability, softness/hardness, elasticity, smoothness and delicacy) were identified as the key sensory attributes to discriminate among rice from different regions. This study provides a theoretical basis and reference for the establishment of a sensory evaluation system for Wuchang rice.

Keywords

• wuchang rice; eating quality; multivariate statistical analysis