Instrumental evaluation and influence of gender and/or age among consumers on textural preference of deep-fried peanuts

- Instrumental properties and textural preference among consumers of deep-fried peanuts were studied.
- Instrumental properties indicated enhanced brittleness due to micro-structural heterogeneity during frying.
- Consumers liked easily broken peanuts.
- Elderly and middle-aged subjects liked brittle peanuts more than young subjects did.

The present study was conducted to evaluate instrumental properties, to perform micro-structural analysis, and to research textural preference among Japanese general consumers (n = 330) using raw and deep-fried peanuts with varying frying periods (2, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 15 min) at 150 °C. The relationship between consumer preference and the influence of gender and/or age among consumers regarding textural preference were evaluated. With increased frying time, the force at failure (FF) decreased from 26 N to 18 N, and the distance at failure (DF) decreased from 2.4 mm to 1.0 mm indicating increasing brittleness. A cross-sectional micro-structural image indicated increasing heterogeneity during frying. The mean preference score for 4 min-, 6 min-, 9 min-, 12 min-, and 15 min-fried peanuts (3.0 to 3.4) exceeded that for 2 min-fried peanuts (2.5 to 2.6), indicating that consumers liked easily broken peanuts. The tendency was more remarkable for middle-aged and elderly subjects (30 years old and older) than for young subjects (15 to 29 years old). Thus, textural perception may play a more important role in textural preference for older individuals than for young individuals. The Mann-Whitney's U test indicated no difference in textural preference between genders.