Indicatief consumentenonderzoek naar zuiveldesserts : vruchtenyoghurt en vanillevla met en zonder biologische claim

Met behulp van een indicatief consumentenonderzoek is getracht een antwoord te vinden op de vragen: - Kan er een optimum gevonden worden voor een aantal sensorische aspecten in vruchtenyoghurt en vla (met name voor zoetheid, romigheid en dikte)? - Welke invloed heeft de claim “biologisch” op de perceptie? - Is er verschil in perceptie tussen ‘reguliere’ en ‘biologische’ consumenten

The influence of olfactory impairment in vital, independently living older persons on their eating behaviour and foodliking

These two studies investigated eating behaviour and food liking of independently living Dutch older people with and without olfactory impairment. In the first study, an internet survey was conducted in relation to their olfactory status (n = 512; age 55–91). Hyposmic older people reported eating the same meal more often within a week than their unimpaired peers, and they also differed in some of the types of foods they reported eating as snacks (i.e. fewer cookies and nuts, more candy). In the second study, various strategies to increase food liking among older consumers were investigated, as well as their liking of reformulated foods with an expected reduced palatability. The strategies included (1) combined visual enrichment and flavour enrichment of mashed potatoes, (2) enhancement of taste intensity and thickness of gravy, and (3) flavour enrichment of stews. The reformulation encompassed (1) salt reduction of meatballs and (2) protein enrichment of bread. Thirty-eight young consumers (age 32.3 ± 8.9 y), 41 normosmic older consumers (age 65.1 ± 5.2 y), and 43 hyposmic older consumers (age 68.5 ± 5.9 y) assessed food liking on a 100 mm visual analogue scale. Both older groups increased their food liking in response to the changes made in the mashed potatoes and gravies, decreased their food liking in response to the salt reduction in the meatball and increased their product liking once information was given on the reduction. In conclusion, older persons – regardless of their olfactory status – may respond positively to multi-sensory enrichment in warm meal components. At the same time, certain types of foods may still appeal more or less to hyposmic older persons which in turn may lead to the development of different dietary intake patterns

Consumer acceptance of salt-reduced 'soy sauce' bread over repeated in home consumption

The stability of liking for salt reduced/re-formulated bread was tested in a home use test for three weeks. Salt was partially replaced by naturally brewed soy sauce. 56 Consumers were provided with regular bread (variant A) and another 59 were provided with salt-reduced soy sauce bread (variant B). During this period, the consumers were asked to exclusively consume the provided bread and to fill in a questionnaire each day from Monday till Saturday (i.e. 15 times in total). They were asked to provide information on the number of slices eaten per day, the type of filling they used and how much they had liked each slice of bread (in combination with the different types of fillings) on a nine-point hedonic scale. On average, the liking ratings of the regular bread (A) and the salt-reduced soy sauce bread (B) developed in different ways over the repeated in home exposure. The liking for the regular bread significantly decreased over time, whereas the liking for the salt-reduced bread, increased steadily although not significantly over the 15 exposure days. On an individual level, significant increases or decreases over time can be observed as well as flat time-preference curves. The results further support the notion that naturally brewed soy sauce is a functional salt replacer in Western foods. The results also confirm that first impressions of a new product may have little predictive value for its later success

Consumer acceptance of salt-reduced 'soy sauce' foods over rapidly repeated exposure

The stability of the liking for salt reduced products was tested in a rapidly repeated exposure study using soup and bread (with ham). Salt was partially replaced by naturally brewed soy sauce. First, 44 consumers performed 5 two-alternative forced choice tests to establish the exchange rate (ER) at which table salt could be replaced with soy sauce without significantly changing overall taste intensity. Secondly, the same consumers rated their liking for 5 samples with varying table salt and/or soy sauce content to determine the optimal exchange rate (OER), which is the highest concentration of NaCl in products that can be replaced with soy sauce without significant losses in both overall taste intensity and product liking. Finally, a new group of 64 consumers performed rapidly repeated exposure tests with two variants per product type: the non-salt-reduced standard variant (A) and a salt/soy sauce variant (B) based on the OER (NaCl reduction soup: 24.4%; bread & ham: 38.9%). Repeated exposure to the soy sauce variant had a significant to very significant positive effect on the liking for the products in all groups of subjects with the exception of a small group that did not like the soy sauce variant of bread. The influence of the rapidly repeated exposure was interpreted in terms of the optimal arousal theory. The results also demonstrated the importance of determining the ER, the OER and the development of preference over repeated exposure in the developed three-stage procedure