Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc., Plano, Texas, USA.
J Food Sci. 2021 Jun;86(6):2640-2654. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.15771. Epub 2021 May 30.
Sensory evaluation of food relies heavily on the eating context. The objective of this study was to determine how the context effect, created from differences in environmental setting and product information, affects consumer's acceptability of two types of beverages. Participants of this study rated five ready-to-drink tea products and five diet cola products on a 9-point hedonic scale. Environmental setting differences were created by altering testing locations, and product information differences were created by serving the same samples with or without product name and image. Self-reported sensory engagement was measured in each location. Tea samples showed significantly higher appearance liking ratings in the sensory booth location as well as higher flavor liking ratings when product information was provided. Cola samples did not show a significant effect of testing location but did show a significant product information by sample interaction, where well-established brands received higher ratings when product information was provided. Overall, results were product-specific; testing location does not appear to have a large influence on hedonic scores for certain beverages, and the impact of product information varies largely depending on the product type and brand. The laboratory sensory booth setting provided higher panelist engagement overall. Additional research on the combination of external context and meal, sample, or social context is needed to fully explore the effect of eating context in sensory tests. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Findings from this study can help the food industry comprehend how test location may impact results of acceptability testing of different beverage products, both in terms of hedonic scores and sensory engagement. Results of this study also evidence the influence of sample information on product acceptability and how this influence differs based on the type of beverage and the popularity of the brand tested.
食品的感官评价在很大程度上依赖于进食环境。本研究的目的是确定环境差异和产品信息差异所产生的情境效应如何影响消费者对两种类型饮料的可接受性。本研究的参与者对五种即饮茶产品和五种低糖可乐产品进行了 9 分愉悦度评分。通过改变测试地点来创造环境设置差异，通过提供有或没有产品名称和图像的相同样品来创造产品信息差异。在每个地点测量自我报告的感官参与度。茶样在感官测试间的位置上显示出更高的外观喜好评分，并且在提供产品信息时显示出更高的风味喜好评分。可乐样品的测试地点没有显著影响，但确实显示出产品信息与样品之间的显著相互作用，当提供产品信息时，知名品牌的评分更高。总体而言，结果是特定于产品的；测试地点似乎不会对某些饮料的愉悦度评分产生很大影响，产品信息的影响在很大程度上取决于产品类型和品牌。实验室感官测试间设置总体上提供了更高的评价员参与度。需要进一步研究外部环境与餐食、样品或社交环境相结合，以充分探索饮食环境在感官测试中的影响。实际应用：本研究的结果可以帮助食品行业了解测试地点如何影响不同饮料产品可接受性测试的结果，包括愉悦度评分和感官参与度。本研究的结果还证明了样品信息对产品可接受性的影响，以及这种影响如何因测试的饮料类型和品牌知名度的不同而不同。
