Sensory Assessment of Pressure‐Cooked and Pureed Pulses Reveals Similarities for Chickpea/Yellow Pea and Dry Bean/Faba Bean

ABSTRACT The dominance of pulses in plant‐based protein foods necessitates an investigation into their organoleptic properties. Taste, aroma, flavor, and trigeminal attribute intensities of purees obtained from pressure‐cooked black bean, chickpea, faba bean, green lentil, pinto bean, and yellow pea were assessed using a trained panel. The panelists rated the attribute intensities using an interval scale with not perceptible and very intense as the anchors. The pulse‐like attribute was consistently rated highly across all the pulse purees. The black, pinto, and faba bean purees mostly exhibited similar characteristics, while chickpea and yellow pea purees behaved similarly, as revealed by analysis of variance and principal component analysis. For example, the dry bean and faba bean purees had higher intensities for the bitter, earthy, and metallic aromas and lower intensities for the green, floury/starchy, sweet, and nutty aromas than those for the chickpea and yellow pea purees. Interestingly, green lentil puree largely exhibited intensities that were typical of dry bean purees, especially pinto. In general, black bean, chickpea, faba bean, green lentil, pinto bean, and yellow pea purees were notable for metallic, sweet, sour, fruity, nutty, and green notes, respectively. The relative similarities in sensory profiles of the pulses can be useful to first, the food industry to expand on ingredients in formulations without drastic effects on the sensory quality and to market pulses that consumers may not be familiar with. Second, consumers who are neophobic might feel encouraged to try different pulses having comparable sensory characteristics with those they are familiar with.