Evaluation of crustless bread by elderly persons and students
- 15.10.2015
- English Articles
- Katharina Fuckerer
- Oliver Hensel
- Joachim J. Schmitt
Peer-reviewed | Manuscript received: May 19, 2015 | Revision accepted: July 16, 2015
Introduction and question
Bread is a staple food in Germany; the average bread consumption per household was 46.5 kg in 2013 [1]. Many elderly persons also enjoy eating bread. Owing to difficulties in chewing and swallowing [2–4], reduced salivation [5] and high usage of dentures, elderly persons often have problems chewing hard food [2, 6] such as bread crusts. It has therefore been suggested that elderly persons prefer foods which are easy to chew and swallow [5], such as crustless bread. In this context, we investigated how elderly persons evaluate crustless rye-wheat bread in comparison to standard rye-wheat bread. By way of comparison, the popularity of crustless rye-wheat bread was also tested among students.
Methodology
Three types of rye-wheat bread were evaluated on a 5-tier scale (1: very bad, to 5: very good) according to appearance, taste, consistency and overall impression by 36 students (20 f, 16 m, ø age: 26) and by 41 elderly persons (33 f, 8 m, ø age: 85). All the elderly persons lived in retirement homes in the city of Hünfeld, were aged over 70 and did not suffer from dementia. Furthermore, neither the students nor the elderly persons suffered from digestive, renal or intestinal disorders or from coeliac disease or were pregnant or allergic to one of the ingredients. All the test persons participated in the tastings voluntarily.
Summary
A number of elderly persons and students evaluated the popularity of standard rye-wheat bread, crestless rye-wheat bread and crustless ryewheat bread with added faux crust on the basis of appearance, taste, consistency and overall impression. The elderly persons preferred ryewheat bread with either a real crust or a faux crust. In contrast, the students preferred rye-wheat bread with a real crust or without a crust.
Keywords: crustless bread, rye-wheat bread, elderly persons, students, sensory sciences
