*2.7. Sensory Evaluation*

Sensory evaluation was carried out through quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) by a panel consisting of 15 assessors. The panelists were students and technical staff of the Faculty of Bioscience and Technology for Agriculture, Food and Environment (University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy). Before analysis, brief training was carried out, in order to verify and discuss the vocabulary and to explain the scales being used. The following attributes were evaluated: Spreadability, consistency, and color uniformity for the appearance and structure; saltiness, bitterness, sourness, and astringency for flavor and taste; creaminess and grittiness for texture and mouthfeel; and then the overall acceptability. The ranking was defined as follows: 1 = lowest intensity and 10 = highest intensity. The samples (about 10 g) were served at room temperature in white plastic dishes with teaspoons. Judges were asked to first observe all of the samples, in order to evaluate the appearance and structure, and then, to put the mayonnaise into their mouth and evaluate the other attributes (flavor, taste, texture, and overall acceptability). Water was used for cleaning the mouth between tasting different samples. Data were normalized to the average score given by each panelist, for each attribute. Then, data were recalculated using the calibration curve obtained by plotting each attribute's raw data (*y*-axis) versus normalized data (*x*-axis). Through this approach, differences in the scale of values of each non-calibrated panel member were avoided. The average scores for each attribute were determined and reported as spider plots.

#### *2.8. Statistical Analysis*

All of the data are the average of at least three measurements and reported as the mean and corresponding standard deviation; for the viscosity parameters, the median was considered. One-way ANOVA analysis was applied to experimental data. Linear regression analyses were carried out on data and the goodness of fit of the models was checked by the determination coefficient R2. Tukey's test was used to establish the significance of differences among the mean values at the 0.05 significance level. Data were processed with XLSTAT software (Addinsoft SARL, New York, NY, USA).

#### **3. Results and Discussion**

The effect of the enrichment with Alg/Pec + OLE microparticles was studied by evaluating several physical properties of the mayonnaise samples just after preparation. In particular, the particle size, viscosity, tribology, and color were determined for their effect on the structural properties and stability of the emulsified structure and the sensory attributes.
