Abstract
There is an increasing interest, in consumer behaviour research related to food and beverage, in taking a step further from the traditional self-report questionnaires and organoleptic properties assessment. With the growing availability of psychophysiological data acquisition devices, and advancements in the study of the underlying signal sources seeking affective state assessment, the use of psychophysiological data analysis is a natural evolution in organoleptic testing. In this paper we propose a protocol for what can be defined as neuroorganoleptic analysis, a method that combines traditional approaches with psychophysiological data acquired during sensory testing. Our protocol was applied to a case study project named MobFood, where four samples of food were tested by a total of 83 participants, using preference and acceptance tasks, across three different sessions. Best practices and lessons learned regarding the laboratory setting and the acquisition of psychophysiological data were derived from this case study, which are herein described. Preliminary results show that certain Heart Rate Variability (HRV) features have a strong correlation with the preferences self-reported by the participants.
Highlights
In recent years, increasing attention has been given to the challenge of understanding the reasons behind consumers’ choices and selections, in the food and beverage industry [1]
During the case study, the software presented the scales with the slider in the left end, rather than in the middle of the scale
In order to validate the potential of the psychophysiological data dimension of this neuroorganoleptics protocol, the ECG signal was processed and analysed. We focus on this modality, given that heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is frequently present in emotion evaluation studies using psychophysiological data [16,34,35,36]
Summary
In recent years, increasing attention has been given to the challenge of understanding the reasons behind consumers’ choices and selections, in the food and beverage industry [1]. Concerning edible products, there is a great interest in obtaining accurate and objective data about the sensory perception of food and beverages and, about consumption intention [2,3,4]. This field of study can be greatly reinforced through the development of new and more in-depth protocols of sensory analysis, capable of complementing self-reporting questionnaires with the use of psychophysiological traits.
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