3 Food acceptability

A.A. WILLIAMS

Abstract

Food acceptance is a complex field influenced by many factors requiring

both acceptance, perceptual and physical and chemical information if it is
to be understood. In this chapter, some of the problems and approaches
available for acquiring acceptance and perceptual information, with
examples, are reviewed. Also the various procedures and underlying
psychological/behavioural models that enable links to be developed between
the two and consequently lead to a deeper understanding of how con-
sumers select food are explored.

3.1 Introduction

The acceptability of foods and beverages is determined by how they are

perceived in sensory, utilitarian, imagery and attitudinal terms, coupled
with the consumers reaction to and trading-off of these various perceived
characteristics [1,2].
Within this scenario, compositional and, hence, functional and sensory
factors are those that the technologist can influence. It is important,
however, to remember that the consumer also pays attention to less
tenuous factors such as perceived nutritional value, health risks and
associated social and personal acceptability. The only way to manipulate
these latter aspects is by promotion, packaging, advertising and pricing.
All consumers look at the world differently. Everyone has their own
individual window on the world - filtering out and processing information
based on personal aspirations, past personal experiences and pressures
imposed by their peers and environment. This window allows individuals
to create their own internal world, permitting them to handle the
magnitude of information being thrust at them by reducing it to manage-
able proportions. It is this internal world that determines how a person
reacts to a product.
If manufacturers are to produce successful products it is important that
they understand the factors influencing this personal world, they must
know how their products are being perceived, how the consumer relates to
them, what other products are viewed in a similar light in the marketplace

J. R. Piggott et al. (eds.), Understanding Natural Flavors

© Chapman & Hall 1994
30 UNDERSTANDING NATURAL FLAVOURS

and how these compare sensorially, functionally and in an imagary sense

with their own products.
Without such information and without understanding how it relates to
product acceptance and choice on the one hand and to technical, chemical
and physical information on the other, developing new markets and new
products, designing advertising and promotion and even establishing
quality control criteria becomes a hit-and-miss operation.
To understand acceptance it is essential to be able to measure product
acceptability and preference and provide some evaluation of the underly-
ing factors that influence them.

3.2 Tools for measuring and understanding product acceptance and

perception

How a product is perceived and evaluated is a consequence of the reaction

between its chemical and physical properties and the person evaluating it.
To help unravel the complex array of interacting factors influencing
acceptance the scientist must explore the problem from both sides.
From the human side, the consumer of a product, or group of products
is the only person who can truly provide information on acceptance.
Unfortunately the responses of such people, as shall be discussed later, are
subject to all sorts of variations and provide very little information of direct
value to the product developer.
Human beings acting as either lay or trained panels together with various
market research and sensory techniques provide the scientist with an
insight into some of the factors influencing acceptance as perceived. The
more analytical such assessments, the more closely they relate to the real
world but the less representative are the views expressed of what is
influencing acceptance and choice [3-5].
On the product side there is a vast array of chemical and physical
techniques available for providing detailed information on the underlying
composition of foods and beverages from which all sensory and many other
stimuli must derive ultimately. It is this information (the real world) to
which many aspects of acceptance must be related if it is ever to be
properly understood and controlled by the manufacturer.
The objective of the food acceptance scientist is to measure and
understand the consumers' reactions to products and relate them to factors
upon which manufacturers can act. In this context, it is often tempting,
particularly so far as sensory attributes are concerned, to try to relate
acceptance information directly to production and analytical factors.
Attempting to short-cut the underlying steps by which stimuli influence
acceptance is fraught with potential pitfalls and often leads to purely
mathematical relationships being derived. Such relationships only hold