Sensory Evaluation of Yam Nuggets (Dioscorea alata L.) of the Bottle Peak Genotype Obtained by Osmotic Dehydration

The objective of this study was to implement the osmodehydration process as a pre-treatment prior to the frying process for the preparation of yam nuggets, where the moisture, ash, fiber, protein, fat and carbohydrate content was evaluated according to A.O.A.C. (1990). The obtained nuggets were sensorially characterized with 11 trained testers using a 9 cm unstructured scale. Five treatments were evaluated by varying the amount of sodium chloride and sucrose (T1: 0, 0, T2: 2; 15, T3: 4; 30, T4: 6; 45, T5: 8; T1: 10, T2: 20, T3: 30, T4: 40, T5: 50) min and temperature (T1: 30, T2: 40, T3: 50, T4: 60, T5: 70) °C. Following the osmodehydration, the nuggets were subjected to immersion frying (180°C for 4 min). The data obtained was evaluated by means of an analysis of variance, Tukey's mean comparison test (p≤0.05). The physicochemical analysis showed statistically significant differences (p≤0.05) between the treatments, observing the influence of osmodehydration, where the increase in the values in the conditions of the process was reflected in the increase in the carbohydrate, fiber and ashes and decreased in moisture, fat and protein. For the Quantitative Descriptive Analysis, the tasters identified statistically significant differences (p≤0.05) for the attributes of color, odor, yam flavor, hardness, chewability, fracturability and sweet taste residual, with T5 presenting the characteristics with better scores, concluding that the application of osmodehydration improved the organoleptic characteristics of the nuggets.