Abstract
This study aimed to develop a test to measure food-induced emotions suitable for stable food and beverages. All of the experiments were conducted under the conditions of a consumer sensory evaluation according to German standard DIN 10974. Test development included descriptors’ derivation and factor analysis as well as a comparison between the new test (empathic food test, EFT) and a hedonic sensory test and an unspecific psychological test, known as a multidimensional mood questionnaire (MDMQ). Nineteen sensory experts derived twelve items using free-choice profiling. After an exploratory factor analyses, ten of the intended twelve items were integrated into two scales. To compare the new questionnaire (EFT) to the MDMQ and a hedonic test, panels of 59 (EFT), 64 (MDMQ) and 63 (hedonic sensory test) untrained individuals described their perceptions after consuming sensorially similar pairs of milk, water, bread and sugar. The benchmark of comparison was the power to discriminate between the food pairs. Test-retest replicability was demonstrated. All three tests presented slight differences in sample preference and effect size depending on the offered products. These findings underscore the need to test new methods with a wide range of products. Further research is needed to investigate the relationship between sensorial perception and emotional response.
Highlights
Does food influence people’s emotions? In recent years, numerous studies have investigated food-induced emotions, leading to the development and application of different questionnaires focusing on emotional perceptions [1,2,3,4]
The empathic food test (EFT) was compared to another emotion questionnaire (MDMQ)
The product effect shown by the analysis of variance denotes a slightly higher discriminating power for the EFT for water and sugar (Table 7) compared to the multidimensional mood questionnaire (MDMQ) (Table 6)
Summary
Numerous studies have investigated food-induced emotions, leading to the development and application of different questionnaires focusing on emotional perceptions [1,2,3,4]. Current scholarly literature on ‘emotion questionnaires’ focuses on several topics, including the following: product specificity, questionnaire length, language [1], derivation of terms [5], the nationality of the observers, the frequency of consumption for certain products [6], the number of offered products, the order of questions [2], the temporal dynamic of sensorial and emotional effects [7], natural or laboratory settings [8] and the measurement period itself [9]. The other funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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