Consumer-Preferred Attributes of a Fresh Ground Beef and Turkey Product: A Conjoint Analysis

A random sample of 3,400 Louisiana households was surveyed by mail to determine their ratings for a number of product profiles involving a combined fresh ground beef and turkey product. The attributes and levels of the new product included form (fresh, frozen), identity of the packager (retailer, processor), percentage of beef in product (50,70,90), and price of the combined product as a percentage of ground beef (80,90,100). Based on 2,781 observations, the order of importance of the attributes were, in order of declining importance, content, form, price, and packager. Consumer utility was highly sensitive to the content of beef, with a higher content being preferred.Consumer/Household Economics,

TASTE PANEL EVALUATIONS OF THE ACCEPTABILITY AND WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR ALTERNATIVE BLENDS OF GROUND MEATS

An untrained consumer panel evaluated the acceptability, willingness to purchase and pricing of several different combinations of fresh ground beef and ground turkey. Important product attributes were flavor and texture, along with previous at home experience with the combined product. Thirty percent turkey appears to be the maximum for acceptability.Consumer/Household Economics,

Adolescent Healthful Foods Inventory: Development of an Instrument to Assess Adolescents\u27 Willingness to Consume Healthful Foods

Interventions to increase adolescents\u27 healthful food and beverage consumption often fail to demonstrate change. An alternative is to measure a shift in willingness to consume these items as an indicator of movement toward change. A survey was developed to estimate willingness to consume a variety of foods and beverages. Twenty items were identified from five focus group interviews with adolescents. A survey of 234 youths indicated their willingness to consume each item. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in lists of high-fat/sugar-rich items and more healthful foods. Extension educators can use the survey instrument to demonstrate early positive participant change as they strive to deliver programs that meet mission mandates

Effect of hot water treatment of in-shell pecans on physicochemical properties and consumer acceptability of roasted pecan kernels

The effect of hot water pre-treatment of in-shell pecans on physicochemical properties, consumer acceptance and purchase intent of dehulled and roasted kernels was evaluated. In-shell pecans were first subjected to hot water at 70, 80 and 90 °C for 8.6, 6.6 and 4.6 min respectively and kernels were later dry roasted at 160 °C for 10 min. The physicochemical properties of hot water treated and untreated nuts, before and after roasting were determined. Furthermore, consumer acceptance and purchase intent of the roasted kernels were determined. Hot water treatment, alone and subsequent roasting had minimal effect on pecans’ physicochemical properties. Consumers liked (P \u3c 0.05) the colour and aroma of treated pecans. No effect (P \u3e 0.05) of pre-treatment was observed on the acceptability of other sensory attributes. Safety claim increased treated pecans’ overall liking; however, it decreased purchase intent. Hot water treatment showed promise as a post-harvest microbial intervention strategy without affecting the physicochemical properties and consumer acceptability

Hot water treatment as a kill-step to inactivate Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica, Listeria monocytogenes and Enterococcus faecium on in-shell pecans

In-shell pecans are susceptible to microbial contamination. This study was performed to investigate feasibility of using hot water treatment as a kill-step for food-borne pathogens during pecan shelling. In-shell pecans were subjected to hot water at 70, 80 or 90 °C for 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 min. The time-temperature treatments to achieve a 5-log reduction of Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, and non-pathogenic Enterococcus faecium were determined. Thermal death values were determined for each tested condition. L. monocytogenes was most susceptible to heat treatment and were reduced by 4.6 ± 0.35 log CFU/g at 70 °C for 5 min, while 3–5 min at 80 and 90 °C treatments was required to achieve a similar reduction level for S. enterica, E. coli O157:H7, and E. faecium. S. enterica were most resistant and required 4 min treatment time to achieve a 5-log reduction at 80 and 90 °C. The D-values ranged from 1.15 to 1.72, 0.83 to 1.19, and 0.41–0.92 min at 70, 80 and 90 °C, respectively. E. faecium had the highest D-value (1.72 min at 70 °C), indicating a potential surrogate for process validation for pecan industries. Utilizing proper hot water treatment during pecan shelling could reduce food safety risk

Lipase and Lipoxygenase Activity, Functionality, and Nutrient Losses in Rice Bran During Storage (Bulletin #870)

This bulletin includes information on the feasibility of using microwave heat to inactivate lipase and LOX, determine the optimum storage and packaging conditions with the fewest adverse effects on functionality, and to determine changes in functionality of rice bran as a result of heat treatment.https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/agcenter_bulletins/1031/thumbnail.jp

Sensory optimization of crackers developed from high-quality cassava flour, starch, and prawn powder

Crackers produced from high-quality cassava flour (HQCF), cassava starch, and prawn powder were optimized based on sensory preference testing. Ten different formulations of crackers were produced using mixture design. These were subjected to sensory evaluation using attributes such as taste, crispiness, puffiness, and acceptability on a 7-point hedonic scale. A mean score of 4.7, 5.6, 5.2, and 5.2 was obtained correspondingly for taste, crispiness, puffiness, and acceptability. Scores for these attributes indicated that the crackers were acceptable. Mixture regression models were used to generate contour plots for the sensory attributes and these were superimposed to obtain an optimal region, from where an optimum formulation was chosen. Verification of the optimal formulation with acceptability studies confirmed that the newly developed snack had a likeness score of 6.3 and was highly acceptable to consumers. The study demonstrates the suitability of HQCF in processing value added snack products

Effects of tasting and ingredient information statement on acceptability, elicited emotions, and willingness to purchase: A case of pita chips containing edible cricket protein

Sustainable and nutritious alternatives are needed to feed the ever-increasing world population. The successful incorporation of edible-cricket protein (ECP) into foods needs deeper consumer insights. Treatments (plain, Italian, and Cajun pita chips containing 6.9% w/w ECP) were evaluated by subjects for overall liking (OL), emotions, and purchase intent (PI) in three different moments: (1) before tasting, (2) after tasting/before ECP statement, and (3) after tasting/after ECP statement. Attributes’ liking scores were evaluated only after tasting/before ECP statement. Liking scores (mixed-effects ANOVA), emotions, and PI across moments within treatments/across treatments within moments were evaluated. Emotion-based penalty-lift analyses for OL within moments were assessed using two-sample t-tests (p < 0.05). Random forest model analyzed after-tasting informed PI and variables’ importance. Although formulations’ OL and PI were similar across moments, plain and Italian chips had higher after-tasting (before and after ECP statement) OL than the Cajun chips. Moments indirectly affected OL via emotions elicitation. Valence and activation/arousal emotions discriminated across moments for the plain treatment whereas valence and mostly activation/arousal terms discriminated across moments for the Italian and Cajun treatments, respectively. For either formulation or moment, “interested” and “adventurous” positively affected OL. Before and after-tasting attribute liking, “satisfied,” and “enthusiastic” emotions were critical in predicting after-tasting informed PI

Comparative study of the functional properties of lupin, green pea, fava bean, hemp, and buckwheat flours as affected by pH

Acknowledgments This work is part of the Strategic Research 2011–2016 and is funded by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exploring text mining for recent consumer and sensory studies about alternative proteins

Increased meat consumption has been associated with the overuse of fresh water, underground water contamination, land degradation, and negative animal welfare. To mitigate these problems, replacing animal meat products with alternatives such as plant-, insect-, algae-, or yeast-fermented-based proteins, and/or cultured meat, is a viable strategy. Nowadays, there is a vast amount of information regarding consumers’ perceptions of alternative proteins in scientific outlets. Sorting and arranging this information can be time-consuming. To overcome this drawback, text mining and Natural Language Processing (NLP) are introduced as novel approaches to obtain sensory data and rapidly identify current consumer trends. In this study, the application of text mining and NLP in gathering information about alternative proteins was explored by analyzing key descriptive words and sentiments from n = 20 academic papers. From 2018 to 2021, insect- and plant-based proteins were the centers of alternative proteins research as these were the most popular topics in current studies. Pea has become the most common source for plant-based protein applications, while spirulina is the most popular algae-based protein. The emotional profile analysis showed that there was no significant association between emotions and protein categories. Our work showed that applying text mining and NLP could be useful to identify research trends in recent sensory studies. This technique can rapidly obtain and analyze a large amount of data, thus overcoming the time-consuming drawback of traditional sensory techniques