No abstract

Sensory science has advanced significantly in the past decade and is quickly evolving to become a key tool for predicting food product success in the marketplace. Increasingly, sensory data techniques are moving towards more dynamic aspects of sensory perception, taking account of the various stages of user-product interactions. Recent technological advancements in virtual reality and augmented reality have unlocked the potential for new immersive and interactive systems which could be applied as powerful tools for capturing and deciphering the complexities of human sensory perception. This paper reviews recent advancements in virtual and augmented reality technologies and identifies and explores their potential application within the field of sensory science. The paper also considers the possible benefits for the food industry as well as key challenges posed for widespread adoption. The findings indicate that these technologies have the potential to alter the research landscape in sensory science by facilitating promising innovations in five principal areas: consumption context, biometrics, food structure and texture, sensory marketing and augmenting sensory perception. Although the advent of augmented and virtual reality in sensory science offers new exciting developments, the exploitation of these technologies is in its infancy and future research will understand how they can be fully integrated with food and human responses. Industrial relevance The need for sensory evaluation within the food industry is becoming increasingly complex as companies continuously compete for consumer product acceptance in today's highly innovative and global food environment. Recent technological developments in virtual and augmented reality offer the food industry new opportunities for generating more reliable insights into consumer sensory perceptions of food and beverages, contributing to the design and development of new products with optimised consumer benefits. These technologies also hold significant potential for improving the predictive validity of newly launched products within the marketplace.

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to examine consumers' perceptions and expectations towards healthy snacks, with particular emphasis on the cereal snack market, and to explore new areas of opportunities for healthy snacks by identifying consumer needs and wants.Design/methodology/approachSix focus group discussions were conducted to generate attitudinal data across three different adult consumer groups.FindingsResults revealed that consumers expected a healthy snack to contain low levels of calories, fat, salt and sugar, and to contain high levels of whole‐grain, oats, bran, nuts, seeds, pulses and fruit, e.g. blueberries, cranberries, gogi berries. Additionally, healthy snacks were required to be free from any artificial colours, sweeteners and flavours. Major factors encouraging healthy snack consumption included reduced risk of weight gain, diabetes, heart burn and bloating. Conversely, perceived taste, portion size, the lack of available convenient nutritional snacks, accessibility and confusion over the credibility of the “healthy product” tag were the main factors preventing healthy consumption in the adult population examined. Consumers expressed a desire for a wider choice of filling snacks with specific health benefits for a variety of usage occasions, particularly those with associated health claims such as “high fibre”, “omega 3 for mental health” and “reduces cholesterol”.Research limitations/implicationsThe study sample size was not extensive and was limited to a small geographical spread of Dublin and Meath on the East coast of Ireland. A more representative sample of the entire Irish population could be the basis for further research.Practical implicationsThese findings increase the understanding of current expectations of the Irish adult consumer regarding healthy snack foods. They also highlight the potential new product development opportunities for snack food manufacturers to explore.Originality/valueThe present paper focuses specifically on healthy snacks and contributes to a limited amount of existing literature by providing consumer research for the development of new healthy snack foods.

PurposeUsing a consumer-led approach, the purpose of this research is to examine how consumers perceive new cereal-based snack food concepts using healthy brewers spent grain (BSG) as a sustainable and functional ingredient.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth laddering interviews based on means–end chain theory were conducted with 40 healthy snack consumers in Dublin, Ireland.FindingsFour hierarchical value maps (HVM) representing data from each snack concept dimensions were generated. The results identified the crispy crackers concept as the most promising for further development, followed by crispy sticks with dip, fruity biscuits and twisted breadsticks. Consumer cognitions regarding the crispy sticks with dip and fruity biscuits were more dominantly associated with a hedonic orientation, while crispy crackers and twisted breadsticks were more strongly associated with health- related dimensions. The HVMs also identified factors which could potentially prevent the acceptance of these snacks. Although consumers displayed a level of environmental consciousness regarding the perceived packaging type, outcomes also showed that the environmental benefit of using BSG in foods is not viewed as a means to attain a desired end state in the consumers’ mind. Our findings also suggest the rich protein content of BSG is not considered relevant in the context of a cereal snack product.Practical implicationsBSG is an abundant, low-cost, nutritious waste material which is available globally in large quantities. This study provides new actionable consumer insights with important implications for snack manufacturers regarding the design and development of cereal snack foods containing this healthy by-product.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a limited body of literature by illustrating which product characteristics are considered important for consumers when selecting healthy, cereal-based snack foods using BSG as an ingredient.

A consumer’s decision to purchase red meat is guided by a combination of many interacting factors including safety, nutrition, sustainability and perception of healthiness along with a variety of sensory characteristics such as colour, marbling, tenderness, juiciness and flavour. Red meat quality is complex and influenced by many intrinsic and extrinsic factors, spanning the chain from breed/genetics through to the final end product with key influences coming from on-farm management and post-mortem processing. As a result of various factors, including consumer demands, the importance of both red meat quality and safety has in recent times come to the fore for the meat industry, with steps to meet these requirements having a large bearing on profitability. Therefore, a critical review of steps which can help control these traits is very important. Accordingly, several processing strategies were proposed at the research and industry level aiming to improve fresh red meat quality traits. This review summarises the current methods applied to improve fresh red meat quality and safety, including the advances in management and prediction tools for carcass and technological and sensory quality traits. These methods are also relevant to the safety and microbiological status of carcasses and meat produced, along with the recent developments in sensory analysis, which aim to understand the sensory properties of red meat and consumers responses. The potential of foodomics approaches is discussed under the topics of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, which help our understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms behind the variation of sensory and technological quality traits and their use for the discovery of putative biomarkers. We further considered the current and emerging sequencing-based methods used to understand microbial community composition of fresh red meat.