Correlations among sensory characteristics and relationships between aroma scores, flavour scores, off-flavour scores and off-flavour descriptors of chevon from four goat genotypes

Abstract

The objective of the current study was to determine the correlations among sensory characteristics and relationships between flavour scores and off-flavour descriptors of chevon. Forty-eight male 6-months old Xhosa lop-eared, Nguni, Xhosa-Boer cross and Boer goat kids were kept at the University of Fort Hare Farm until slaughter. Sample cuttings for meat tasting were made from the hind leg. Aroma score was independent of off-flavour descriptors from meat from all goat genotypes (P > 0.05). Off-flavour descriptors and their frequencies varied with genotypes. There were significant (P< 0.001) correlations between most sensory characteristics of meat across genotypes although; there were variations in some goat genotypes. There were relationships among sensory scores, while flavour scores, aroma scores, off-flavour scores and off-flavour descriptors of chevon are independent. This implies that, all sensory characteristic scores and off-flavour descriptors should be included when carrying out sensory evaluations with meat from different goat genotypes.

Key words: Goat genotypes, off-flavours, off-flavour descriptors, sensory  evaluations, sensory score relationships.