Food Product Development and Sensory Evaluation

Food Product Development (FPD): Basic Concepts and Importance

Food Product Development (FPD) is a major activity in the food industry, which has been
active for over 40-60 years. Its primary objective for food companies is to seek new products to
be profitable and survive, while new product development is essential for continued growth.
This process has evolved gradually into a strategic business area supported by advanced
technology. Product development is characterised by a company philosophy, a basic company
strategy, and is a multifunctional company activity.

The industry faces continuous pressures from constantly growing supermarkets, an extensive mix
of products, and continuous price promotions. There is also a drive for product differentiation
and changes in social and technological aspects that cause major product development. A key
concept related to FPD is the Product Life Cycle, which is a management tool used to analyse
how a product behaves from its creation to its withdrawal from the market. It typically comprises
four main stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The factors influencing a product's
life cycle include demographics and economics, health, nutrition and safety, technology,
manufacturing style and capability, quality management, and environmental factors. Shelf life
and safety are crucial aspects, referring to the duration a food product remains safe for
consumption and maintains its intended quality. Proper understanding of shelf life helps
consumers make informed decisions about food storage, consumption, and waste reduction.

Stages of Product Development

The Product Development (PD) process is a system of research that involves four main stages:
Product Strategy, Product Design and Process Development, Product Commercialization, and
Product Launch & Evaluation. Critical evaluations and top management decisions occur between
these stages.

1. Product Strategy (Stage 1): This stage begins with finalising the product development
strategy and outlining the product development programme. It involves defining the
project by determining its aims, outcomes, and constraints, often through desk research.
A key activity is developing the product concept, which considers consumer needs,
target product brief, competitive products, and concept selection. Finally, a project plan
is prepared. Top management makes crucial decisions regarding the product concept's
ability to satisfy consumer needs, financial viability, and harmony with the company's
business and environment.
2. Product Design and Process Development (Stage 2): This stage is process-intensive
and is characterised by creativity, systematic planning, and monitoring. It involves
considering raw materials and ingredients, utilising quantitative techniques (such as
experimental designs and statistical analysis), applying aesthetic skills in product design
(e.g., sensory science for consumer acceptability), defining product characteristics (e.g.,
long life, low water activity), and developing semi-production plant facilities. This stage
typically concludes with a clear go/stop decision before proceeding to more expensive
stages.
 3. Product Commercialization (Stage 3): This stage involves the full scale-up of both
production and marketing. It focuses on setting up commercialisation, designing
marketing, production, and distribution, and testing. The key factor in this stage is
integration of product, production, and marketplace.
4. Product Launch and Evaluation (Stage 4): Effective product launch is a key driver of
top performance and is often the single costliest step in new product development. This
stage considers demand outcomes (trial, repurchase, innovation adoption, and diffusion)
and launch activities (marketing-mix and production/distribution decisions). A
successful launch depends on integrating strategy, activities, and demand outcomes, as
well as good management of timing and costs.

Throughout these stages, a strong knowledge base is critical, encompassing understanding of

global cultures (needs, wants, attitudes), basic knowledge of raw materials and processing, high
technological knowledge and problem-solving skills, and effective product development systems
and organisation. This includes both tacit knowledge (personal, experience-based) and explicit
knowledge (codified, documented).

Designing and Formulating a New Food Product Recipe

This aspect is integral to the "Product Design and Process Development" stage. It involves
applying technical and sensory knowledge to create a product that meets desired specifications
and consumer expectations. For instance, in developing a new apple variety, breeders identify
specific desirable attributes such as sweetness, acidity, flavour, texture, and crispness, which
define the product's quality. Similarly, for whey protein products, formulation involves designing
the processing to separate protein fractions and manipulating other aspects, along with
identifying worthwhile markets. The process considers functional properties and sensory
attributes to create a product suitable for consumption. Case studies show that recipe formulation
involves investigating ingredients, production processes, and scaling up batches from laboratory
to pilot plant to full production..

Basic and Application of Sensory Tests

Sensory evaluation is a scientific method that defines, evokes, measures, analyses, and
interprets responses to products as perceived through the human senses of sight, smell, touch,
taste, and hearing. The sensory properties of foods are generally grouped into three major
categories:

1. Appearance: includes colour, size, and shape.

2. Flavor: encompasses odor and taste. Taste involves five basic qualities: salt, sweet, sour,
bitter, and umami, which are detected by taste buds on the tongue and other parts of the
mouth. Odor involves volatile substances detected by olfactory receptors.
3. Texture: refers to attributes like mouthfeel, hand feel for viscosity, and hearing.

Three main types of sensory tests are commonly used, each with a different goal and participant
selection:
  Difference (Discrimination) Tests: These objective tests determine if a perceptible
difference exists between two or more samples. Examples include paired comparison
(choosing which of two samples is stronger/more intense in a given attribute), triangle
test (identifying the odd sample among three, two of which are identical), and duo-trio
test (matching one of two samples to a reference sample).
 Affective (Hedonic) Tests: These subjective consumer tests quantify the degree of liking
or disliking of a product, often using a 9-point hedonic scale (ranging from "Like
extremely" to "Dislike extremely").
 Descriptive Analysis: This sophisticated tool allows sensory scientists to obtain
complete sensory descriptions of products, identify underlying ingredients/process
variables, and determine which sensory attributes are important for acceptance. It
involves trained panelists who quantify sensory attributes, as seen in methods like Flavor
Profiling.

Conducting Sensory Evaluation and Factors Influencing Sensory Judgment

To ensure reliable sensory measurements, sensory specialists must carefully standardise serving
procedures and sample preparation techniques. Key conditions to control include:

 Sample Size: Affects scores and should be determined based on the study's purpose.
 Serving Temperature: Must be specified in the test protocol, as it influences perception
of volatile flavors.
 Serving Containers: Can be a challenge to standardise; disposable containers are often
used to reduce costs.
 Carriers: Materials (e.g., bread, salad dressing) that serve as a base for the food being
tested; careful consideration is needed if the food is rarely consumed alone.
 Palate Cleansing: Techniques like water, crackers, or sorbet are used to neutralise or
refresh taste buds between samples, preventing lingering flavours.
 Randomization & Blind Labelling: Essential to reduce bias and prevent preconceived
notions or knowledge of the product from influencing judgments. Samples are typically
labelled with three-digit codes.
 General Testing Area: Should be easily accessible, quiet, with controlled temperature
and humidity, free from noise and odours, and with uniform, shadow-free, controllable
ambient lighting.
 Preparation Area: Requires adequate working surfaces, washing facilities, storage, and
ventilation. Sensory facilities often include dedicated booths, group work areas, and
preparation rooms.

Human judgments in sensory measurement can be affected by various factors:

 Psychological Factors:
o Expectation Error: Prior knowledge of samples or product can influence
judgment.
o Suggestion Effect: Comments or noises from other assessors can affect
judgments.
o Distraction Error: External distractions can impact assessment.
 o Stimulus and Logical Error: Using additional, logically associated information
(e.g., deeper colour implying more intense flavor) to make a judgment.
o Halo Effect and Proximity Error: Judgment of one attribute influencing the
ratings of other attributes, especially when judging several attributes at once.
o Habituation: Assessors assigning similar scores repeatedly to similar products.
o Order Effect: The score assigned to a sample being influenced by the preceding
product.
o Central Tendency Error: Assessors tending to avoid the extremes of the scale.
 Physiological Factors:
o Adaptation: A decrease in sensitivity due to continuous exposure to a stimulus.
o Perceptual Interactions between Stimuli: One substance enhancing (e.g., salt
increasing chicken flavor perception) or suppressing (e.g., sourness reducing
peach flavor) the perceived intensity of another.
 Cultural Factors:
o Product Codes: Cultural associations with colours, shapes, or branding (e.g., red
being good luck in Chinese culture) can influence perception.
o Eating in Public: May make participants feel self-conscious and influence food
choices.
o Spiritual Restrictions: Dietary restrictions (e.g., Muslims avoiding pork) can
influence sensory evaluation.
o Group Feedback: Decisions or opinions influenced by group consensus.

Analyzing Sensory Data

After data collection, statistical methods are applied to analyse sensory data and draw
conclusions. This often involves Hypothesis Testing, which evaluates assumptions about a
population based on sample data.

 Parametric Tests: Used when data follows a specific distribution (typically normal
distribution) and rely on parameters like mean and standard deviation. Examples include
t-tests (comparing two means) and ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) (evaluating overall
quality scores or the presence or absence of treatment effects across multiple groups).
 Non-Parametric Tests: Used when data does not rely on specific distributional
assumptions and are suitable for skewed, ordinal, or small sample sizes. The Friedman
Test is a non-parametric alternative to repeated-measures ANOVA, used to compare
rankings across three or more related groups or conditions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is a primary objective of food product development for food companies?

A. To increase production capacity

B. To seek new products to be profitable and survive
C. To reduce marketing costs
D. To standardise existing product lines
2. Which of the following is NOT listed as a core element of product development?
A. A company philosophy
B. A basic company strategy
C. A multifunctional company activity
D. A marketing innovation strategy

3. What are the four main stages of a product's life cycle as described in the sources?
A. Design, Development, Launch, Decline
B. Introduction, Growth, Maturity, Decline
C. Research, Production, Marketing, Sales
D. Concept, Prototype, Market, Withdrawal
4. Which of the following is NOT explicitly mentioned as a factor influencing how long a
product remains viable in its life cycle?
A. Demographics and economics
B. Packaging and labelling
C. Health, nutrition and safety
D. Technology
5. According to the sources, how many main stages are there in the Product Development
(PD) process?
A. Three B. Four C. Five D. Six

6. Which of the following is a crucial decision top management must make before funding
further stages of a product development project?
A. Is the product concept appealing to employees?
B. Will the product concept deliver the financial and other aims set in the business and
product development strategies?
C. Is the product concept easy to manufacture?
D. Is the product concept compatible with current inventory?

7. What type of research is typically used to define the project's aim, outcomes, and
constraints in the "defining the project" sub-stage of Product Strategy?
A. Laboratory research
B. Field research
C. Desk research
D. Consumer surveys
8. What is the primary focus of "aesthetic skills" in food product design?
A. Optimising production processes
B. Developing a sensory product acceptable to the consumer
C. Reducing raw material costs
D. Ensuring long shelf life
9. What is identified as a major factor causing stumbling blocks or uncertainty in
technology transfer from the laboratory to the full-scale plant in product design and
process development?

A. Lack of marketing knowledge

B. Financial constraints
C. Lack of processing knowledge of the food designer
D. Inadequate supply chain

10. What is considered the "important factor" that product commercialisation ends with?
A. Cost reduction
B. Full integration of the product, production, and marketplace
C. Brand recognition
D. Regulatory approval

11. Sensory evaluation is defined as a scientific method used to perform which four key
actions regarding products as perceived through human senses?
A. Create, market, distribute, consume
B. Evoke, measure, analyse, interpret
C. Observe, categorise, compare, predict
D. Design, test, refine, launch

12. Which of the following is NOT listed as one of the five basic taste qualities?

A. Sour B. Spicy C. Sweet D. Umami

13. Which of the following is listed as a major category of sensory properties of foods,
encompassing mouthfeel, hand feel for viscosity, and hearing?

A. Appearance B. Flavor C. Texture D. Aroma

14. Which type of sensory test is primarily used to determine if a perceptible difference exists
between two samples?
A. Affective tests B. Hedonic tests C. Descriptive tests D. Discrimination tests

15. Which discrimination test involves presenting assessors with three samples, where two
are the same and one is different, and the assessor must identify the 'odd one'?

A. Paired comparison B. Duo-trio test C. Triangle test D. A-not-A test

16. What type of scale is commonly used in affective testing to quantify the degree of liking
or disliking of a product?
A. Intensity scale B. Numerical rating scale C. Hedonic scale D. Ranking scale

17. According to the sources, what is a crucial aspect sensory specialists should standardise
regarding samples in sensory testing?
 A. Brand name and packaging
B. Serving temperature and sample preparation techniques
C. Production date and batch number
D. Marketing strategy and target consumer

18. Which psychological factor occurs when assessors use additional information to make a
judgment about the samples under assessment, such as product branding or luxurious
containers?
A. Expectation error
B. Suggestion effect
C. Stimulus and logical error
D. Halo effect

19. The phenomenon where continuous exposure to a stimulus leads to a decrease in

sensitivity is known as:
A. Habituation
B. Adaptation
C. Carry-over effect
D. Central tendency error

20. What is the primary purpose of ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) in sensory data analysis?

A. To identify which mean(s) is (are) different

B. To provide evidence concerning the presence or absence of treatment effects
C. To compare two samples only
D. To rank different products based on preference

Answer Key:

1. B
2. D
3. B
4. B
5. B
6. B
7. C
8. B
9. C
10. B
11. B
12. B
13. C
14. D
15. C
16. C
17. B
18. C
19. B
20. B