USING 7-POINT FACIAL HEDONIC SCALE TO COMPARE CHILDREN PREFERENCE TOWARDS PASTEURISED MILK AND UHT MILK: A CASE STUDY ON LOCAL COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS

Abstract

Children are an important targeted consumer group of food and beverage industry nowadays, especially of dairy industry. Understanding children liking for sensory properties of a food product is the key for product development success. Pasteurised milk and UHT milk are two major choices for children drinking milk in Vietnamese market. The difference in production process of these two products, mostly the heating treatment, may occur differences in terms of sensory properties and by consequence affect children’s preference. The objectives of this study were then i) to verify ability of the 7-point facial hedonic scale in evaluating children preference of different age groups; and ii) to compare the degree of liking of pasteurised milk and UHT milk by children. 240 children aged from 4 to 13 participated to an acceptance test using 7-point facial hedonic scale. One pasteurised milk sample, one UHT milk sample and one UHT sweetened control sample collected from the market were tested. These 3 testing products belong to one local producer. Results showed that for all testing age groups children rated the control sweetened sample as the most favourite. This helps to justify that children of these ages are able to use the scale. There was no difference of children liking for tested pasteurised milk and UHT milk on all testing age groups. Possible sensory difference between these products is not resulted in preference differences among the testing children. Further results on the effect of age group, gender and general milk liking of children were also discussed.