Abstract
There is an increasing importance of the role of children and adolescents in the food market and to successfully develop food products intended for them, it is necessary to apply proper sensory evaluation methodologies. Although children can execute traditional methods for food liking and preference evaluation, traditional sensory descriptive methods may not be suitable for them and it is necessary to assess their ability to perform novel sensory profiling methods. Thus, this study aimed to assess children’s acceptance of an innovative food product – cookies incorporating fermented grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) flour – and their ability to describe a sensory profile using a Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) approach. Two different types of cookies (salty and sweet) were developed, differing in the level of substitution of wheat flour by fermented grass pea flour (between 0 and 40%). The cookies were evaluated by two sensory panels of 60 children (8–12 years), who assessed the overall liking using a 7-point facial hedonic scale and the sensory profile of the samples using a CATA ballot with 21 sensory terms previously developed through focus groups with children. Children showed the ability to discriminate the different samples with the hedonic scale and according to their sensory profile. Results revealed that the focus-group with children is an adequate way to generate CATA ballots and that the CATA approach is adequate to evaluate how children discriminate the sensory profile of food products. Furthermore, the food neophobia level of the children negatively impacted their acceptance of the food products.
Highlights
Children and adolescents are groups of consumers presenting an increasing importance in the food market, having a great influence in the purchase of food products, either through direct influence on their parents’ purchase decisions or even by buying the products themselves (Laureati & Pagliarini, 2018; Laureati, Pagliarini, Toschi, & Monteleone, 2015; Popper & Kroll, 2011)
Children elicited a total of 60 sensory attributes for the sweet cookies and 57 for the salty cookies and for both types of cookies most of the attributes were related to appearance (23 for sweet cookies and 21 for salty cookies)
Children elicited a great number of attributes related to appearance, in the final list only 3 attributes were chosen for appearance
Summary
Children and adolescents are groups of consumers presenting an increasing importance in the food market, having a great influence in the purchase of food products, either through direct influence on their parents’ purchase decisions or even by buying the products themselves (Laureati & Pagliarini, 2018; Laureati, Pagliarini, Toschi, & Monteleone, 2015; Popper & Kroll, 2011). It is essential that food manu facturers optimize the products intended for children and adolescents, by matching the sensory expectations of these particular consumers. Involving children in product development can play a significant role in reducing obesity and malnutrition through a better understand ing of the main processes influencing the acquisition of eating patterns (WHO, 2012). Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public-health crisis of the 21st century, and children’s eating habits are major factors in the development of these diseases (Lobstein, Baur, & Uauy, 2004). The unhealthy food habits of children and adolescents are related to several risk factors such as marketing of foods rich in fat, sugar and salt (Kelly et al, 2010) and individual food preferences (Birch, 1999)
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