3.4. Sensory evaluation
Table 2 shows the average scores given by the panelists to each of the attributes. No significant differences were detected among samples in the overall acceptability scores before storage, although the samples treated with exogenous lycopene received higher scores. According to the scale used, the fish samples were considered to be acceptable for human consumption until the sensory score reached 3.9. Acceptability scores for odor, color and texture of trout fillets evaluated by the panelists, decreased with time of storage, as …show more content…
shown in Table 2. Nonetheless, texture scores of analyzed samples decreased at slower rate compered to odor and color scores. The same results have been reported in our previous study (Jasour et al., 2014).
On 9th day of storage, odor of control samples received unacceptable scores (3.20) and panelists considered control samples to be unfit for human consumption (Table 2). Thus it seems that odor is proved to be the most sensitive of the sensory properties evaluated.
Lycopene was significantly effective (P < 0.05) in freshness stability of trout fillets during refrigeration storage.
It can be seen (Table 2) that high acceptability grades, especially for samples which received exogenous lycopene, were scored during the first 9 days of storage for studied samples. Moderate grades then were obtained between days 9 and 12 of storage for samples receiving dietary lycopene. Nonetheless, the limit of acceptability for odor was attained after 12 days for fillet samples receiving dietary lycopene, while this limit was never attained for samples receiving exogenous lycopene throughout the entire storage
period.