B020192 - PERCEPTION AND ACCEPTABILITY OF FOOD PRODUCTS

Italian

Physiological and psychological bases for sensory evaluation; Difference, Descriptive, Similarity and temporal methods. Hedonic tests: acceptability and preference tests. Food preference models;
Settings for consumer tests ; Sampling, demographics and socio-cognitive scales. Consumer segmentation; Repertory Grid Method and focus group; Consumer's hedonic and sensory expectations Preference Mapping; Drivers of liking

Corse handbook;
Società Italiana di Scienze Sensoriali, Atlante Sensoriale dei Prodotti Alimentari, Milano, Tecniche Nuove, 2013
Ella Pagliarini, Valutazione Sensoriale, Hoepli, 2002
H. T. Lawless, H. Heymann, Sensory Evaluation of Food: principles and
practices, (1999). Kluwer Academic Publisher, The Netherlands.
Consumer-led food product development, (2007). Hal MacFie (ed.)
Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, (UK)

Knolewdge acquired: Factors affecting consumer liking and preference for
food products;
Competence acquired (at the end of the course):
Management of sensory evaluation and consumer testing resources, activities, and their interaction with other business units; exploratory research techniques. To be able to apply a method for studying consumer
perception of food and quality. To be able to study hedonic and sensory consumer expectations.
To be able to apply multivariate statistical methods in studying consumer
preference.
Skills acquired (at the end of the course): Being able to analyse the
complexity of a phenomenon and to identify relevant individual factors.
Being able to develop multidisciplinary approaches in solving complex
problems. Being able to integrate tools, techniques and methods from
different scientific disciplines. Being able to define what kind of specific
competences are needed in solving complex problems

Students are expected to be familiar with basic elements of statistics and food chemisty

ECTS
Total hours of the course: 48
Hours reserved to private study and other indivual formative activities: 102
Contact hours for: Lectures (hours): 32
Contact hours for: Laboratory (hours): 10
Contact hours for: Laboratory-field/practice (hours): 6
Seminars (hours): 0
Stages: 0
Intermediate examinations: 0

Teaching tools
e-learning platform UNIFI
slides
sensory laboratory equipped with a computerised system for data
acquisition and analysis

The exam verifies the acquisition of the knowledges needed to correctly design and conduct either a sensory or a consumer test. Specifically, the students are required to correctly describe the physiological and psychological factors affecting sensory responses, the mechanisms determining food preferences the classification of sensory tests and the relative statistical methods for data validation. The acquired skills are tested by verifying the capability of correctly selecting a sensory test in relation to a specific task and the capability of designing the most common sensory and consumer tests, analyzing and reporting the results. The appropriateness and adequacy of the technical language is evaluated too.

Quality Requirements of Food products. Sensory properties of food and beverages; Physiological and psychological bases for sensory evaluation;
Sensory evaluation methodology: the experimental design. Scaling procedures. Sensory test classification. Difference tests: paired difference test, triangular test, duo-trio, ranking test. Descriptive methods: Descriptive Analysis, Free choice profiling, flash analysis. CATA Similarity methods: Sorting and Projective mapping. Temporal methods: Time-Intensity, Temporal Dominance of Sensations.
Hedonic tests: acceptability and preference tests Consumer testing vs. market research ;Types of consumer
tests ; Settings for consumer tests ; . Univariate methods in analysing sensory data (t-test; linear regression, ANOVA). Multivariate methods in sensory data
analysis (PCA and GPA). Segmentation: Demographics, psychographics, attitudes, usage and genetics;
Neophobia, Sensory responsiveness (PROP) Familiarity. Repertory Grid Method; Segmenting consumers based on sensory liking. Internal Preference Mapping and Preference Clustering;
Hedonic and sensory
expectations Relating consumer and sensory data; Principal component analysis of sensory attributes and hedonic ratings Internal and External preference mapping.