Improving the sensory quality of flavored liquid milk by engaging sensory analysis and consumer preference.
Developing innovative products that satisfy various groups of consumers helps a company maintain a leading market share. The hedonic scale and just-about-right (JAR) scale are 2 popular methods for hedonic assessment and product diagnostics. In this paper, we chose to study flavored liquid milk because it is one of the most necessary nutrient sources in China. The hedonic scale and JAR scale methods were combined to provide directional information for flavored liquid milk optimization. Two methods of analysis (penalty analysis and partial least squares regression on dummy variables) were used and the results were compared. This paper had 2 aims: (1) to investigate consumer preferences of basic flavor attributes of milk from various cities in China; and (2) to determine the improvement direction for specific products and the ideal overall liking for consumers in various cities. The results showed that consumers in China have local-specific requirements for characteristics of flavored liquid milk. Furthermore, we provide a consumer-oriented product design method to improve sensory quality according to the preference of particular consumers.
School of Computer and Communication Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China; China National Institute of Standardization, Beijing 100191, China. Electronic address: zhirc_research@126.com.
Ruicong
R
Zhi
China National Institute of Standardization, Beijing 100191, China.
Lei
L
Zhao
Dawning Information Industry Co. Ltd., Beijing 100193, China.
Jingye
J
Shi
D000818:Animals; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005421:Flavoring Agents; D005518:Food Preferences; D008892:Milk; D013649:Taste
D005421:Flavoring Agents
just-about-right scale; local consumer preference difference; partial least squares regression; penalty analysis