(MDPI, 2021) Merino Antón, Gorka; Marín Arroyo, Remedios; Beriain Apesteguía, María José; Ibáñez Moya, Francisco C.; Institute on Innovation and Sustainable Development in Food Chain - ISFOOD; Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua
Dishes whose texture has been modified for dysphagia undergo changes in other sensory
characteristics as well. Therefore, it is necessary to identify these characteristics in adapted dishes and
their relationship to hedonic acceptance. In the present work, the sensory characteristics of five dishes
adapted to dysphagia associated with cerebral palsy were investigated using the check-all-that-apply
method. A hedonic evaluation with a panel of non-dysphagic judges was performed to relate the
degree of acceptance with the sensory characteristics of the adapted dishes. The identification of
the original non-adapted dish as well as the relationship between the hedonic evaluation by nondysphagic
judges and dysphagic judges were explored. The main attributes of the dishes adapted
to dysphagia were “homogeneity” and “easy-to-swallow”. Attributes that increased the hedonic
evaluation were “flavorful”, “flavor of the original dish”, “soft texture”, “easy-to-swallow”, and
“odor of the original dish”. The attributes that decreased the hedonic evaluation were “thick mash”
and “bland”. The fish dish was the only one correctly identified more than 62.5% of the time. The
adapted dishes received scores above 4.7 out of 9.0 in the hedonic evaluation. The most accepted
dishes were the chicken stew and the chickpea stew. Except for the pasta dish, the test yielded
similar results to those obtained with dysphagic judges. The texture-modified dishes were correctly
characterized and accepted. This study shows that all the sensory characteristics of the adapted
dishes are crucial for acceptance and identification.
