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Sensory Methods

ANALYTICAL AFFECTIVE
(Consumer test)
•Threshold
Consumer testing •Discrimination
•Descriptive
•Time-Intensity
QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
•Volume
Dzung Hoang Nguyen •Acceptance •Focus group
•Preference •Interview
•Consumption •Observation

What is consumer testing? Why doing consumer tests?

• Assessment of current and potential customers’
hedonic responses to a product or specific product Prevent problems by testing products in
characteristics advance instead of after problems exist
It measures preferences for products or
magnitude of like/dislike for a product
• Products can be evaluated on:
– Texture (mouth feel) Increase repeat sales, customer loyalty, prevent
– Taste or flavor returns and claims, avoids bad publicity.
– Appearance or color
– Smell or aroma
– Hearing
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AFFECTIVE/CONSUMER TESTS QUANTITATIVE METHODS

• Answer questions about “subjective” – Acceptance

perceptions/ qualities of the products from
consumers.
– How much do you like the products?
– Which product do you prefer?
– What do people think about the product?
– How will people use the product?
– How much do people use over time?
– When do they use it?
Consumer testing
• Measure the degree of acceptance (liking) and
specifics on WHAT is liked/disliked.
– Preference
• Measure the preference (selection) of one product
over one or more other alternatives
– Consumption
• Measure the number and/or amount of food(s) that
is (are) ingested by an individual or group during a
set period of time
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QUALITATIVE METHODS Differences and Similarities Between Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Qualitative
Categories Quantitative
Group Individual
Number of 8-12 in a group
<50 100-1000 +
– Discussion (Focus group) Respondents 2-4 groups

Screened – Assume to
Demographics Screened Screened represent larger
– Interview population
• Assess “opinions/ attitudes” toward products Verbal dynamic Verbal dynamic
Procedures Written consistent
interactive interactive

– Behavioral observation (e.g. Choice, Purchasing, Usage) Responses Group dependent

Independent (except
Independent
for interviewer bias)
• Provide observation of real consumers in an interactive
setting Ability to:
1. Generate ideas Excellent Fair Poor
2. Probe Good Excellent Poor
3. Numerically Poor Poor Good
measure
– Do not involve “measurement”. 4. Compare Fair Poor Excellent
– Statistical analysis may be unnecessary replications

Analysis No statistics Statistics limited Full range of statistics

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How to do consumer tests? Key points in designing good consumer tests

Hedonic reactions depend on personal

1. Setting the Right Objective
experience and culture

• Not stable
• Large inter individual variability
• Work with a large number (N > 100, as a rough
rule of thumb) of untrained individuals who
consume the product you are interested in.
• The method chosen must fit the objectives of the
research question so:
➢ Be clear on test objectives: Think of possible test
outcomes and identify appropriate actions
➢ Do one test at a time to avoid confusion

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Key points in designing good consumer tests Key points in designing good consumer tests

3. Asking the Right Questions

2. Asking the Right People
• Consumers might perceive product as a whole
• Participants must be chosen carefully to ensure that pattern, rather than in an analytical way, have very
the results will generalize to the population of interest: fuzzy concepts about specific attributes and might
➢ Frequent users of your product or similar product have difficulties making absolute judgments so:

➢ Correspond to the targeted population
➢ Avoid trained panelists or persons having knowledge
about the product (companies or laboratory personnel)
• Avoid asking consumers about specific analytical
attributes, use global questions.
• Use comparative judgments rather than absolute
one

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How to decide where to do the test ? How to decide where to do the test ?

Central location test (CLT) Home use test (HUT)

• Consumers are recruited and invited to a testing facility to
participate in the test:
➢ Advantage: test administrators have control over the
test design, product preparation and presentation
➢ Inconvenient: situation very different from real life, so
problems of extrapolation
• Consumers are recruited to take products home and use them
according to instructions. They fill out a questionnaire and
return it.
➢ Advantage: more ecological (i.e., more like real life)
than CLT tests
➢ Inconvenient: less control that CLT tests, more
expensive, more time consuming

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How to decide where to do the test ? How to decide which test using?

Trade off between reliability and real life extrapolation

The first rule in designing a consumer test
is to keep it easy and understandable by all
Reliable Ecological

CLT tests • Four main approaches:

– Preference / choice (pair comparison tests)
– Preference Ranking
HUT tests
– Rated acceptability (category or line scales)
– Just-About-Right (JAR) scale

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Paired-preference test Paired-preference test

• Principle: A pair of coded samples is Examples of response sheets
presented for liking comparison
“Taste these two products. Start with the product on your left,
“Which one of the two coded samples and then put a check mark on your favorite product”.
do you prefer?” product 375 • product 298 •

• Presentation: balance A/B B/A and random
• Results: count number of responses A et B
Chi2 or binomial test
“Taste these two products. Start with the product on your left,
and then put a check mark on the option that corresponds to
your preference”.
product 375 •product 298 •no preference •

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Paired-preference test Ranking test

• Principle: A series of coded samples is presented for
ranking
• Advantage
– Easy to organize and implement “Rank samples according to your
– Simple task for participants preference”
• Inconvenient • Presentation: balance serving order to avoid position
– Number of samples tested increase and carry over effects
exponentially with number of products tested
(6 samples for 4 products, 10 for 5, 15 for 6 …)
• Results: Compute the sum of the rank for each
– Does not directly determine the magnitude of
product
preference
Friedman Test
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Position and carry-over effects Ranking test

• Position effect: Consumers tend to treat the
first few samples differently Examples of response sheets

• Carry-over effect: effects that "carries over" “Please taste the four products which are in front of
from one sample to the next one you. Start with the one most on the left. When you are
Williams latin done, rank the product from the least liked to the most
Random order Latin square square well”.

A C D B A B C D A B D C
B C A D D A B C D A C B
Worst Best
C A D B C D A B C D B A
D B A C B C D A B C A D

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Ranking test Rating scales

• Principle: A series of coded samples is presented
for rating
• Advantage
– Easily applied and interpreted “Indicate the degree to which you like or
– Simple task for participants dislike the sample”
• Presentation: balance serving order to avoid
• Inconvenient position and carry over effects
– Difficult to use above 7 samples • Results: compute average scores and standard
– Does not directly determine the magnitude of deviations or transform in ranks
preference
ANOVA or Friedman test
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Rating scales Rating scales

Three main categories of liking scales 9-point hedonic scale
□ like extremely
• Category scales: Verbal anchors are associated
with some or all the categories □ like very much
Main inconvenient:
□ like moderately • Avoidance of extreme points
• Numerical scales: Numerical anchors are • Does not translate well
associated with some or all the categories
□ like slightly
□ neither like nor dislike
• Line scales: Verbal anchors are positioned at Some people suggest using other
□ dislike slightly scales
the left and right end of a line
□ dislike moderately
Category scales are the most broadly used □ dislike very much
□ dislike extremely
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Rating scales Rating scales

Other examples of category scales Numerical scale

I don’t like at all I like very much

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Line scale
I don’t like at all I like very much

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Just about right scales Just about right scales

Inconvenient
Used for the
optimization of • Consumers might not have an internal ideal product
attribute levels against which the test product can be compared?
in food
• Words do not necessarily have the same meaning for all
products.
• Some consumers might prefer products with one set of
sensory characteristics and others with a different set of
Data that are normally distributed around the center of characteristics.
the scale are indicative of an optimized level of the
attribute Many studies use rather external preference mapping

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Soy yogurt example Soy yogurt example

Please write down the 3-digit code written in the product that you are going to taste.:
Please taste this product and indicate your overall appreciation of this product by putting a check mark in the appropriate
box:
        
Hello I do not like it at all Neither like
nor dislike
Totally like

Thank for accepting to participate in this experiment which is part of a

Taste the product as often as you need and indicate your evaluation of the following characteristics:
research performed for a dissertation thesis in food science from the
Aspect :
University of Burgundy, Dijon, France.
        
You will be given a tray with five yoghourt samples and a small survey I do not like it at all Neither like Totally like
sheet which includes some questions that we would like you to answer. nor dislike

Each product is marked with a 3 digit code which is also marked on the Smell :
top of the first sheet (out of five) of the questionnaire for this product.         
Please taste each sample and answer the questions relative to your I do not like it at all Neither like
nor dislike
Totally like
evaluation of the product. Please taste the samples in the order
Taste in the mouth :
indicated.
        
Thanks again for your help in this research project.
I do not like it at all Neither like Totally like
nor dislike

Texture in the mouth :

        
I do not like it at all Neither like Totally like
nor dislike

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Soy yogurt example Soy yogurt example

7
a a 9
6 8

5 Cow milk 7

b b Soy milk 6 Naturel

4 Velouté
5
Sojadel
3
c 4 Sojasun
SojaCa
2 3

2
1
1
0 Taste Texture Appearance Smell

leaderprice velouté sojade sojasun soja

carrefour

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To know more…

• Moskowitz H.R, 1994 - Food concepts and

products. Just-in-time development. Food &
Nutrition Press, Inc.,Trumbull, USA.
Practical 1: Understanding consumer
• Meiselman H.L. & MacFie, 1996 – Food choice preferences for coffee
acceptance and consumption, Chapman &
Hall, London, Great Britain.

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Practical
Understanding consumer preferences for
coffee
A vietnamese coffee company would like to
develop new concept of coffee. The chief R&D
officer asked his team to carry out a consumer
test in order to develop a product that meets
consumer preference
Practical
Understanding consumer preferences for
coffee
Step 1: write the test protocol knowing that the
R&D department provided us with the 4
following samples

You are in charge of performing this test

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Practical
Understanding consumer preferences for
coffee
Step 2: Collect the data
Step 3: Analyze the data

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