Listening to children voices in early stages of new product development through co-creation – Creative focus group and online platform

To tackle current nutritional issues like obesity, it could be valuable to involve children in the development of healthy food products that they will actively chose and enjoy. The aims of the present exploratory study were (i) to assess a methodology for early-stage idea generation through co-creation, for the development of healthy snacks with pre-adolescents, and (ii) to compare two settings, creative focus groups (CFG) and an online community (ONL). Three steps were defined to allow the gradual exploration of the topic and mutual learning throughout the process: (1) Show &Tell: photo taking and -elicitation to understand what children ate; (2) Reflect: a sorting task of the pictures to discuss and reflect on snacking practices (3) Create: an idea generation step, in which a newspaper article describing an idea for a new healthy snack was created. To increase engagement and creativity, gamification strategies were used. Our results demonstrated that children (preadolescents) can create new food product ideas with the proposed process, using enabling and creative techniques. In the CFG the trained moderator could steer the group to the co-creation goal. The setting facilitated teamwork and group learning, collaborative ideas considering preferences of peers and produced a few detailed and mostly actionable ideas. In the ONL less control over the process was possible. The setting produced many ideas varying in the degree of detail and actionability focusing on individual preferences. The feedback and observations from our study, particularly in the CFG setting, implied that the creative approach was highly engaging for participants. Further research is necessary to assess the potential of initial ideas developed by pre-adolescents.publishedVersio

Meat replacer? No thanks! The clash between naturalness and processing: An explorative study of the perception of plant-based foods

A shift towards a plant-based diet is desired to promote sustainability, improve health, and minimize animal suffering. However, many consumers are not willing to make such a transition, because of attachment to meat and unwillingness to change habits. The present work explored the perception of Norwegian and French consumers' attitudes, barriers and opportunities to increase the likelihood of a shift in diet. Three creative focus groups (CFGs), using interactive tasks such as photo-collage, projective mapping, story completion and third person technique, were run with omnivorous adult consumers in each country. CFGs gathers undirected feedback, providing less biased responses than other exploration methods, related to e.g. social norms. In both countries, results were in general lines comparable. Nutritional knowledge was low regarding vegetable proteins; familiar sources of protein were mostly animal. There is a strong gap between respondents’ desired behaviour (balancing nutrition, eating less meat) and their actual behaviour: meat is very important, and the menu is often organized around it. Consumers are curious about vegetable sources of protein, but major constraints were hedonics in France, and convenience in Norway. The main barrier to a shift in diet is the lack of knowledge on how to prepare plant-based meals. Many participants find a conflict between health & sustainability in industrial products, perceiving them as highly processed and suggesting that meat replacers might not be a straightforward way to drive omnivorous consumers to shift to a more plant-based diet.publishedVersio

Linear seesaw model with hidden SU(2)H×U(1)XSU(2)_H \times U(1)_X gauge symmetry

We propose a linear seesaw model with a hidden gauge symmetry $SU(2)_H \times U(1)_X$ where two types of standard model singlet fermions in realizing a linear seesaw mechanism are unified into $SU(2)_H$ doublet. Then we formulate scalar and gauge sector, neutrino mass matrix and lepton flavor violations. In our gauge sector, $Z$-$Z'$ mixing appears after spontaneous symmetry breaking and we investigate constraint from $\rho$-parameter. In addition we discuss $Z'$ production at the large hadron collider via $Z$-$Z'$ mixing, where $Z'$ tends to dominantly decay into heavy neutrinos.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figure

Microwave-assisted production of biodiesel

ncreasing popularity of sour beer urges the development of novel solutions for controlled fermentations both for fast acidification and consistency in product flavor and quality. One possible approach is the use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in co-fermentation with Lactobacillus species, which produce lactic acid as a major end-product of carbohydrate catabolism. The ability of lactobacilli to ferment beer is determined by their capacity to sustain brewing-related stresses, including hop iso-α acids, low pH and ethanol. Here, we evaluated the tolerance of Lactobacillus brevis BSO464 and Lactobacillus buchneri CD034 to beer conditions and different fermentation strategies as well as their use in the brewing process in mixed fermentation with a brewer’s yeast, S. cerevisiae US-05. Results were compared with those obtained with a commercial Lactobacillus plantarum (WildBrewTM Sour Pitch), a strain commonly used for kettle souring. In pure cultures, the three strains showed varying susceptibility to stresses, with L. brevis being the most resistant and L. plantarum displaying the lowest stress tolerance. When in co-fermentation with S. cerevisiae, both L. plantarum and L. brevis were able to generate sour beer in as little as 21 days, and their presence positively influenced the composition of flavor-active compounds. Both sour beers were sensorially different from each other and from a reference beer fermented by S. cerevisiae alone. While the beer produced with L. plantarum had an increased intensity in fruity odor and dried fruit odor, the L. brevis beer had a higher total flavor intensity, acidic taste and astringency. Remarkably, the beer generated with L. brevis was perceived as comparable to a commercial sour beer in multiple sensory attributes. Taken together, this study demonstrates the feasibility of using L. brevis BSO464 and L. plantarum in co-fermentation with S. cerevisiae for controlled sour beer production with shortened production time.publishedVersio

Listening to children voices in early stages of new product development through co-creation – Creative focus group and online platform

To tackle current nutritional issues like obesity, it could be valuable to involve children in the development of healthy food products that they will actively chose and enjoy. The aims of the present exploratory study were (i) to assess a methodology for early-stage idea generation through co-creation, for the development of healthy snacks with pre-adolescents, and (ii) to compare two settings, creative focus groups (CFG) and an online community (ONL). Three steps were defined to allow the gradual exploration of the topic and mutual learning throughout the process: (1) Show &Tell: photo taking and -elicitation to understand what children ate; (2) Reflect: a sorting task of the pictures to discuss and reflect on snacking practices (3) Create: an idea generation step, in which a newspaper article describing an idea for a new healthy snack was created. To increase engagement and creativity, gamification strategies were used. Our results demonstrated that children (preadolescents) can create new food product ideas with the proposed process, using enabling and creative techniques. In the CFG the trained moderator could steer the group to the co-creation goal. The setting facilitated teamwork and group learning, collaborative ideas considering preferences of peers and produced a few detailed and mostly actionable ideas. In the ONL less control over the process was possible. The setting produced many ideas varying in the degree of detail and actionability focusing on individual preferences. The feedback and observations from our study, particularly in the CFG setting, implied that the creative approach was highly engaging for participants. Further research is necessary to assess the potential of initial ideas developed by pre-adolescents

Chicken fillets subjected to UV-C and pulsed UV light: Reduction of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, and changes in sensory quality

submittedVersio

Process optimization and possible use of salt substitutes with a view to salt reduction in smoked salmon products (OptiSalm). Sub-report for sensory profiling of smoked salmon with salt substitutes

publishedVersio

Secondary lactic acid bacteria fermentation with wood-derived xylooligosaccharides as a tool to expedite sour beer production

acceptedVersio

Meat analogues from a faba bean concentrate can be generated by high moisture extrusion

The main objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of production of meat analogues from a faba bean protein concentrate (obtained from dry fractionation) using high-moisture extrusion (HME). The impact of the temperature, ratio between water and product feed rate and product feed rate on the physicochemical properties of the meat analogues during high-moisture extrusion (HME) was studied. The functional, textural, and sensory properties were also assessed. The impact of the moisture content was generally higher than the impact of the temperature and the feed rate within the responses evaluated. The different extrusion conditions tested did not influence the relative distribution of the oligosaccharides. Meat analogues produced with temperatures ranging between 130 and 140 °C, ratio between water and product feed rate of 4 and feed rate of 11 rpm (1.10 Kg/h) had the most positive sensory and textural properties judged by a good bite-feel (firmness) and elasticity in line with attributes associated with this product category. Of oligosaccharides analysed the content of verbascose was the highest -galacto-oligossacharide and the content of the oligosaccharides is significant higher in the extracts of the heat-treated material compared to the starting material.publishedVersio