Consumer sensory science in product development : a case study with a fermented rye product

Abstract: Consumers’ perceived satisfaction with a new product is an important area of research in product development. The present study aimed to utilize two methods in order to understand consumers’ perceived satisfaction in the product development process of a fermented rye-product. The consumer tests were held in two separate occasions: ESOF and the Food festival. The study of prospective portion size was carried out in ESOF and the study of collative motivation model was carried out in both occasions. In addition, a descriptive analysis was used to describe products used in the study of collative motivation model in the Food festival. The study of prospective portion size was investigated both as the measurement of interest to food and as an important factor affecting short-term energy intake by visual stimuli. The results showed that different food metrics of rye products had significant different prospective portion sizes. The prospective portion size was negatively correlated with expected satiety; hence it can be predicted by expected satiety. The study of collative motivation model aimed to predict long-term liking of fermented rye products by the relationship with collative properties (i.e. familiarity, novelty and complexity). The results from the ESOF showed a linear relationship between the hedonic response and complexity, which partially supported the inverse U shape relationship between liking and collative properties. It may be because the products’ quantity was not large enough. And the results obtained at the Food festival did not support the inverse U shape relationship. This could be explained by the range of the perceived inter-product difference was not large enough, which was verified by the descriptive analysis. The result of the descriptive analysis verified the non-significant difference between two of five tested products. In conclusion, the results of the two collative motivation models did not support the inverse U shape relationship. Nevertheless, the rye products’ preference/acceptance was proved to be driven by a concurrent need for familiar stimuli and novel/complex stimuli, and this could be a direction to further improve the acceptance of the fermented rye products. Two potential consumer groups were shown from the results. At last, among demographic factors, information levels and language versions were identified to have effects on the acceptance of the products.