Impact of almond form and moisture content on texture attributes and acceptability.

UNLABELLED: The objectives of this study were to measure sensory texture attributes of 5 types of almonds (blanched slivered, natural sliced, whole blanched, whole dry roasted, and natural whole) conditioned at 4 different moisture levels, to measure liking of a subset of these products, and to compare the sensory texture measurements with consumer liking ratings. Thirteen panelists trained to evaluate almond texture rated the texture attributes of the 20 almond samples. A panel of 113 almond consumers rated their liking of a subset of 8 of these almonds. Compared with the whole almonds, sliced and slivered almonds had less hardness, less crunchiness, less cohesiveness, less tooth packing, and required fewer chews and swallows to consume. Compared with slivered almonds, sliced almonds were more powdery, had more surface roughness, more loose particles, and were crisper. Compared with slivered almonds, sliced almonds were less hard, broke into fewer pieces, had less moistness and cohesiveness of mass, less fatty film, and required fewer chews and fewer swallows to consume. Dry roasted almonds were generally harder, more crisp, more crunchy, and produced more loose particles than natural almonds, which were, in turn, more hard, crisp, and crunchy than blanched almonds. As moisture content increased, moistness of mass and cohesiveness of mass increased. Crispness, number of pieces, hardness, crunchiness, persistence of crunch, and particulate mass decreased with increasing moisture content. Consumer texture liking ratings were highly positively correlated with the attributes crispness, crunchiness, and persistence of crunch. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: In addition to roasting and blanching, water content of almonds is important for key texture properties. Almond producers can use this information to provide customers with almonds having texture properties important to consumers.

California almond shelf life: lipid deterioration during storage.

UNLABELLED: The effects of storage conditions on the lipid deterioration in California almond nuts and sliced were studied. Natural whole almonds with or without polyethylene (PE) packaging and blanched whole almonds and sliced with PE packaging were stored in 10 different storage conditions which were combinations of different temperatures and relative humidity levels. The peroxide values (PVs), iodine values (IVs), and free fatty acids (FFAs) were monitored during the storage. The PVs in the natural samples did not change noticeably whereas the blanched samples changed greatly, indicating that skins may have played a significant role. The IVs decreased slightly in the 1st 150 d of storage and then leveled off. The slightly faster changes in IVs in the blanched samples coincided with the greater changes in PVs in the blanched samples. The natural samples exhibited much higher FFA levels than the blanched samples after storage. In general, FFA increased with increasing storage time, temperature, and humidity. Highest levels of FFA were observed in the samples stored at high temperature and high humidity. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The results reported in this article provide useful information that almond producers and processors could use to develop their storage and transport processes.