Monitoring changes in sponge cakes during aging by front face fluorescence spectroscopy and instrumental techniques.

In the present study, sponge cakes, produced at the pilot scale, were monitored during aging (i.e., 1, 3, 6, 9, 16, and 20 days) by three different analytical techniques. For the texture analyzer, the hardness and elasticity of crumb cakes were found to significantly increase and decrease, respectively, throughout aging. Color parameters (L*, a*, and b*) showed only slight change throughout aging, and a high correlation (R(2) = 0.88) was observed between the whiteness and the yellowness. Tryptophan fluorescence spectra (excitation, 290 nm; emission, 305-490 nm) recorded on cakes exhibited three maxima located at 382, 435, and 467 nm that were attributed to maximum emission of tryptophan (382 nm) and fluorescent Maillard reaction products (435 and 467 nm). The principal component analysis (PCA) applied to the tryptophan spectra allowed a clear discrimination of cakes aged for 1, 3, and 6 days from those aged for 9, 16, and 20 days. Finally, canonical correlation analysis (CCA) performed on the textural and tryptophan fluorescence spectral data sets showed that the two groups of variables were highly correlated because the squared canonical coefficients for canonical variates were 0.99, indicating that cake texture determined at the macroscopic level by texture analyzer is a reflection of its structure at the molecular level determined by fluorescence spectroscopy.