Public Policy Issues

Abstract
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 Sensory Scientists Are an Integral Part of the Product Development Team . . . . 367 Measurement of Product Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 Consumer Input Is Critical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 Sensory Research in the Product Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 Consumer Acceptance Tests are Not a Substitute for Marketing Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369 Acceptance and Preference Tests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 Methods Used in Acceptance and Preference Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 Rating Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 Ranking Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374 Consumer Tests by Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Sensory Laboratory Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 The Central Location Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 Home-Use Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389 Characterizing the Food Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 Physicochemical Measures of Product Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398 Descriptive Analysis Testing Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400 Relating Descriptive Analysis and Physicochemical Measurements to Consumer Acceptance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401 Consumer sensory testing is necessary in food product evaluation for product development guidance, product improvement and optimization, and maintenance. The testing methods employ untrained individuals and larger sample sizes than required in sensory analytical test methods. Consumer affective tests appear to be relatively simple to plan and conduct. Unfortunately, the seemingly easy task is often invalidated by improper data-collection methodology, which invariably leads to faulty interpretation 2833: “chap13” — 2007/9/26 — 13:37 — page 366 — #2 of the testing methodologies are extremely important if test results are to be used as a basis for business decisions.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: