Background: The initial contact of consumers when choosing sunscreens is through the trademark, packaging, perfume, and tactile feeling of the product, outlining the popular practice of sensory science.
Aims: To describe the sensory and physical-mechanical profile of commercial sunscreens through sensory and instrumental analyses related to principal component analysis (PCA).
Methods: Seven commercial sunscreens available on the Brazilian market and with a solar protection factor (SPF) of 30 were evaluated. Physical-mechanical profiling (rheological and textural analyses) was conducted by a trained panel, followed by sensory profile characterization and descriptive analysis. The results were assessed using the Spearman correlation coefficient and PCA.
Results: The correlation or lack thereof of the instrumental parameters with most of the sensory aspects was demonstrated using the Spearman coefficient. PCA enabled us to identify the nature of the dissimilarities among the samples.
Conclusions: The obtained results highlight the importance of descriptive sensory analysis in the research and development of sunscreens, evidencing the significance of precisely informing the products' formulation in order to be chosen by the consumer.
Keywords: claim substantiation; rheology and texture analysis; sensory analysis; sunscreen.
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