Food Product Development PDF

Food Product Development Lecture # 1 Understanding consumer food choice and acceptance  Food is essential for everyone and a significant industry. Eating habits are influenced by three main classes of variables: food, people, and environment. Research focuses on product characte...

Food Product Development Lecture # 1 Understanding consumer food choice and acceptance  Food is essential for everyone and a significant industry. Eating habits are influenced by three main classes of variables: food, people, and environment. Research focuses on product characteristics, people's responsiveness to food cues, and environmental factors. Eating behavior is complex, influenced by numerous variables, but often studied separately. Integrating these variables poses a major challenge for researchers.  Focus on the Product Earlier models of food acceptance emphasized sensory aspects and physicochemical properties. Product development involves interdisciplinary collaboration, with sensory playing a crucial role. Sensory testing methods include descriptive analysis and preference testing. Sensory attributes greatly influence food acceptance, but the correlation between liking and consumption varies. Techniques like Just-About-Right scales aid in adjusting product attributes to consumer preferences.  Focus on the Person Consumer-focused models aim to develop successful products by understanding consumer needs and preferences. Qualitative methods like depth interviews and focus groups uncover attitudes and motivations. Group data collection methods reduce time/cost but may be influenced by peer pressure. Quantitative studies involve large-scale usage and attitude studies to segment consumers based on behaviors and attitudes.  Focus on Social, Economic, and Physical Context Context, including social, economic, and cultural factors, is crucial in determining food acceptance. Various models incorporate context alongside sensory factors. Eating behavior is influenced by multiple factors, including product characteristics, individual traits, and environmental factors. Home Use Testing (HUT) provides a more realistic setting for testing new food products. Economic context and cultural factors significantly impact consumer preferences and food choices.  Future Trends Consumer-led food product development has evolved significantly, with the emergence of advanced research techniques. Challenges remain in predicting the market success of novel products and validating laboratory testing methods. Future trends may involve integrating consumer-oriented product development with marketing strategies and understanding food choices within the context of meals. Cultural considerations and globalization are essential for future food research, requiring a balance between Western-centric models and global perspectives. Food Product Development Lecture # 2 Sensory perception as a basis of food acceptance and consumption  Human senses help identify edible material and regulate ingestion for survival. Sensory stimulation triggers preparatory phases for food utilization. In a competitive market, sensory quality greatly influences the success of food products. Food acceptance, defined as affective responses to food, is crucial for product success.  The Sensory System All senses contribute to food perception, with visual and olfactory signals being crucial. Different senses play roles at different phases, with multimodal perception being important. Texture and flavor, major food quality categories, are perceived through multiple sense modalities. Initial impressions are essential, creating expectations that influence overall acceptance.  Vision: The human eye perceives color and appearance attributes, influencing flavor identification. Congruent color helps identify corresponding flavors, while incongruent color can mislead. Recent research demonstrates the powerful role of color in flavor perception, even among trained experts. Visual cues significantly impact the perception of food quality and flavor.  Olfaction: Odors are perceived through both orthonasal (through the nostrils) and retronasal (during chewing and swallowing) pathways. The human olfactory system can detect a wide variety of odorous compounds, with individual variations in odor perception. Odor perception is influenced by factors like exposure, training, and vocabulary. The olfactory system perceives odors as patterns rather than individual compounds, contributing to the complexity of odor perception. Retronasal odor perception plays a significant role in food flavor, along with taste and chemesthetic sensations.  Taste: Taste perception begins on the tongue, where taste buds contain receptor cells. Five tastes are recognized: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami (brothy). Different taste qualities are elicited by various chemical compounds. Saltiness primarily comes from sodium chloride, while bitterness is elicited by a wide range of substances. Umami taste is typically triggered by compounds like sodium glutamate. Each taste quality plays a distinct role in food perception and complements other sensory modalities.  Touch (Somesthesis): Somatosensory perceptions include feelings of cutaneous and deep touch, muscle tension, joint position, warmth, cold, and irritation. Chemesthesis refers to chemical stimulation of nerve endings, resulting in sensations like burning, stinging, tingling, and numbness. Examples include spices like mustard and chili, alcoholic beverages, and cooling agents like menthol. Tactile perception involves mechanoreceptors reacting to pressure, stretching, and vibration. Mouthfeel, astringency, and oiliness are examples of tactile perceptions. Kinaesthetic perceptions relate to joint positions and force, influencing textural characteristics such as hardness and elasticity. Texture perception, although traditionally considered less important than flavor, significantly affects food perception. It involves visual, tactile, kinaesthetic, and auditory stimulation.  Audition: Auditory perceptions in food are usually related to texture, such as the sounds produced when biting or chewing crispy or crunchy foods.  Interpretation of Perceptions in the Brain: The brain is crucial in interpreting sensory information, integrating inputs from different senses. Flavour perception involves the brain combining taste, retronasal odour, and chemesthesis. Learning plays a significant role in integrating these sensory inputs into a coherent perception. Texture perception is also multimodal, involving visual, tactile, kinaesthetic, and auditory stimulation. Neural integration facilitates perception across modalities.  From Perception to Affection: Affection towards food is processed separately from perceived intensity and can be influenced by cognition. Brain research confirms the effect of cognition on affection towards food, such as brand names affecting neural responses to drinks. Prediction of consumption from sensory- affective responses A. Measuring Affective Responses: 1. Rating procedures Various procedures like rating scales, paired comparison, ranking, etc., are used. Different scales have different levels of measurement and statistical analysis methods. Affective responses can be measured for overall liking or specific attributes of food. Selection depends on factors like clarity, respondent characteristics, and study objectives. Different scales suit different situations; e.g., simple tasks for busy environments, smiley faces for clarity. 2. Stimuli for Rating: Stimuli can be actual food samples or food names. Ratings for food names may differ from those for actual samples due to memory and attitude biases. Context factors like other samples and product category descriptions affect ratings. Cues from context need to be considered when planning trials to avoid bias. 3. Respondent Considerations: Different respondent groups may require tailored evaluation procedures. Infant responses are observed behaviorally, while children and elderly may need adapted methods. Elderly respondents may exhibit lenient rating behavior, requiring careful interpretation. B. Food consumption operationalised Methods of Food Consumption Assessment: Developed primarily in nutritional sciences to estimate nutrient intakes. Includes 24-hour food recall, dietary history, and food frequency questionnaires (FFQ). Individual food intakes are translated into nutrient intakes using databases. Consumer Sciences Focus: Interest usually lies in purchase intention, choice, or consumption of specific foods or food categories. Requires instruments that reliably reflect intended or actual choices/consumptions. Instruments similar to those in nutritional research but with a more limited scope. Possible Instruments: Instruments for food consumption assessment include surveys, interviews, and questionnaires. These instruments are tailored to capture consumer behavior regarding specific foods or food categories. C. How affective responses and food consumption relate to each other Affective Ratings vs Use Frequencies: Affection predicts 25-50% of food consumption. Correlations between liking ratings and use frequencies range from 0.33 to 0.73. Correlations are influenced by the method of data collection and respondent characteristics. Use frequency scales tend to yield higher correlations due to respondent consistency. Affective Ratings vs Food Choices: Consumers often choose foods they rate as pleasant. Hedonic ratings influence food choice, but other factors like variety-seeking behavior and dieting also play a role. The first choice is based on expectations, while subsequent choices incorporate sensory experiences.  Affective Ratings vs Reported Purchase Interests: Purchase intentions are influenced by both affection and label information. Health-related claims can affect purchase interests, even if the food is not highly liked. Affective Ratings vs Consumed Quantities: Lab studies show that hedonic ratings may not always predict actual consumption. Post-consumption ratings are more reliable predictors of consumption. Context and availability also influence consumption choices. Field studies show that highly liked items are more likely to be consumed completely. Lessons Learned: Taste-and-spit tests may not provide enough exposure for accurate predictions. Highly liked foods are more likely to be consumed fully, while less liked items may result in leftovers.  Individual factors modulating affective responses and consumption Food preferences are largely learned from culture and social surroundings. Children develop preferences based on exposure to available foods. Individual preferences still play a role alongside cultural influences. Individual Sensory Capabilities: People vary in their sensitivity to food-related stimuli. Elderly individuals may have impaired sensory capabilities, affecting their appetites. However, increased aroma intensity didn't necessarily improve food acceptance among elderly with impaired senses.  Genetic Factors and Taste Perception: Genetic differences, like tasting status for PROP, may influence food consumption habits. For example, individuals classified as non-tasters, tasters, or supertasters of PROP may have different food preferences. However, evidence for these genetic influences is not conclusive. Impact of Sensory Sensitivity on Food Consumption: Sensitivity to certain compounds can affect food acceptance. For instance, sensitivity to bitter tastes can lead to the rejection of bitter foods. Sensory sensitivity can vary widely among individuals, influencing their food choices.  Attitudes, Traits, and Dispositions: Beliefs, attitudes, and personality traits interact with food acceptance. Consumer segments are often based on values, attitudes, and other mental constructs. Various scales measure traits and attitudes related to food consumption, helping understand consumer preferences. Researchers should consider validity, cultural context, and translation when using these scales. When sensory perceptions are ignored Consumer Expectations and Sensory Quality: Consumers expect food products to meet sensory expectations consistently. Deviations from expected sensory quality may lead to consumer complaints. However, changes in sensory quality don't always result in negative consumer responses. Examples of Consumer Non-Responsiveness: Study on slightly adulterated milk showed no effect on consumption despite a slight decrease in hedonic rating. Consumers may overlook sensory differences due to factors like limited choice, prior exposure, or product importance. Similar results found in studies on tomato soup and popcorn consumption regardless of taste variations.  Impact of Appearance on Perception: Study on adulterated orange juice color showed that while color had a dramatic effect on initial impression, overall liking remained unaffected. Chemosensory properties often dominate perception of beverage quality over appearance. Initial impression influences consumer engagement in tasting. Tolerance to Sensory Changes: Study on cork taint in wine found that rejection didn't occur at the perceived off- flavor threshold but at a higher concentration. Some consumers didn't reject heavily tainted wine, possibly due to individual insensitivity or perception of off-flavor as part of wine flavor. Lenience towards sensory changes can be explained by expectation theory, where evaluation shifts towards expectation if the difference is not too large.  Future trends Advancements in Brain Research: Significant progress made in understanding brain responses to food stimuli. Future research will focus on how texture and flavor preferences are processed in the brain. Learning aspect of food preferences will be a key focus due to its implications for nutrition. Importance of Sensory Quality in Market Competition: Intense competition in the food market emphasizes the importance of sensory quality. Affective responses of consumers need serious consideration.  Growing Importance of Individual Attitudes and Traits: Individual attitudes and traits will continue to be important. Proper consumer segmentation tools are needed. Verbal segmentation instruments must be valid, reflecting modern consumer thoughts yet timeless. Rapid Development of New Foods and Beverages: New products enter the market rapidly, many being modifications of familiar ones. Understanding success factors among different consumer groups is crucial. Research should focus on identifying fundamental success factors for new products for better market prediction.