Pogácsa is a high-demand bakery product with a unique texture, where crumb structure is a determining factor for its textural quality and consumer acceptability. At present, there is no non-destructive in-line inspection method for textural quality assessment of pogácsa. Therefore, this study was aimed to evaluate the texture of pogácsa using the image processing technique, which was prepared using different cheeses with varying moisture contents (MC) and was baked at 200 and 215 °C. Samples were assessed for textural, visual, physical, and sensorial properties. The findings indicated that the highest porosity (72.75%) was found for the sample baked at 215 °C with low-moisture cheese (58%), while the lowest porosity (32.66%) was observed for cheese-free sample baked at 200 °C. Pore volumetric ratio and MC showed strong correlations (p < 0.01) with hardness (-0.90 and -0.89), resilience (0.87 and 0.83), cohesiveness (0.84 and 0.82), springiness (0.87 and 0.90), gumminess (-0.92 and -0.92), and chewiness (-0.92 and -0.92), respectively. The pore volumetric ratio showed a strong correlation (p < 0.01) with reference porosity (0.71). Overall, the current study indicated that adding cheese with varying MC and baking temperature could affect the texture of pogácsa cake, which could be detected by image analysis.
Keywords: image analysis; pore volumetric ratio; porosity; textural properties.