Mapping of dairy cream shelf-life by means of mechanical measurements combined with multivariate analysis

Mechanical measurements provide physical parameters with fundamental significance in terms of rheological properties, i.e. the materials’ response to the applied force. The parameterisation of the instrumental texture attributes may differ in the way the force-deformation plot are analysed, either by extracting some parameters, or by considering the signal as a whole. In this study, back-extrusion tests were carried out for whipped dairy creams at different storage times and the obtained curves analysed by means of an advanced statistical approach. Principal Component Analysis was applied, in order to obtain the maximum content of information related to the mechanical properties of the dairy cream samples. In this case, multivariate statistical analysis proved to be able to handle large datasets produced by a consolidate analytical technique and consequently appeared as a promising tool for studying the entire mechanical profiles. Results showed how mechanical measurements combined with multivariate analysis can represent a successful tool for shelf-life monitoring of this semi-solid material, since the mechanical profiles described the structural changes of the product during time and multivariate analysis appeared as a helpful screening method.