No abstract

Smoked and barbecued meats have continued to gain popularity in recent years, however, no consensus exists on the best methods for preparation. Several smoker types and many varieties of wood are used for smoking meat in the restaurant industry and by amateur “pit‐masters.” In this research, pork was smoked with an outdoor offset smoker and an indoor electric smoker using four wood types: hickory, apple, oak, and mesquite. Descriptive and consumer acceptance tests were conducted to evaluate the different treatments and determine drivers of liking. Pork smoked with the offset smoker using hickory wood had the highest overall acceptance. Appearance characteristics, such as intensity of red color, were the top drivers of liking for the smoked pork product. Practical Application This research demonstrates the drivers of liking for smoked pork products commonly found in American barbecue, specifically Kansas City‐style barbecue. The results have application in both retail and restaurant environments and can be used to produce an optimized smoked pork product.

There has been a surfeit of work on the use of emojis in consumer research methodologies; the intent of this present research was to develop and validate a new emoji-based scale for measuring consumers' emotional response to products. In Phase 1, children ages 8-11 in the United States and China were asked to evaluate written food and situational stimuli using one of two emoji scale prototypes and the Peryam & Kroll (P&K) scale (super good/super bad). One prototype, the K-State emoji scale, performed significantly better than the other based on its stimuli discrimination and participant understanding and was chosen for further research. In Phase 2, the same demographic was asked to taste and evaluate flavored potato chip samples using both the K-State emoji scale and P&K scale. Participants in each country used the emoji scale in a similar manner and the scale was able to adequately discriminate across all stimuli. The results demonstrated the K-State emoji scale is valid in the United States and China and is suitable for measuring children's emotional response to products. Practical applicationsThe K-State emoji scale is a 7-point scale made of yellow-face emojis ranging from positive to negative valence. The scale is intended to measure simple emotional response to products from consumers, specifically children. The visual scale is easy to use and simple to understand with potential application opportunities globally. This method is open-source; to obtain digital

The continued interest in emoji as a medium for measuring emotional response and the need for scales appropriate for cross‐cultural research were the drivers for this study. Experiments using 299 flavored potato chip consumers in the US and China were conducted to understand the suitability of the K‐State emoji scale for measuring emotional response to food products. Adults in each country were asked to evaluate flavored potato chips using a traditional nine‐point hedonic scale and the K‐State emoji scale. The K‐State emoji scale was found to be as equally discriminating as the nine‐point scale, and the scoring from the two scales followed similar distribution patterns and were highly correlated. When asked about the K‐State emoji scale's appropriateness, a significantly higher number of participants in China felt it was “appropriate” or “very appropriate” for the task compared to participants in the US. The findings presented here suggest the K‐State emoji scale is applicable in both countries, however, may be more suitable for the Chinese adult consumer.Practical ApplicationThe K‐State emoji scale is a suitable method for measuring emotion response to consumer products. It has been validated with children and adults in the US and China. The scale is intuitive, visual, and easy to use. The K‐State emoji scale is free to use.

Personal care encompasses a diverse set of product categories including primarily skincare, makeup, and haircare, among others. With such varied use occasions and application styles, researchers require less traditional sensory and consumer research methods for product evaluation including a combination of interviews, focus groups, descriptive analysis, consumer research, and instrumental testing. More novel methods, such as emotion and online review research, provide sensory scientists with new avenues for describing, categorizing, and optimizing personal care products as well. Moreover, a trend of synthesizing results from multiple sources to produce more comprehensive learnings has been found to be highly valuable to researchers. This review discusses current sensory and consumer evaluation methods relevant to the personal care space and considers future opportunities for development and innovation. Practical ApplicationThis review synthesizes the available literature on sensory evaluation in the personal care space. It aims to summarize and present the main methods used in these product categories and identify the gaps in knowledge. This work provides a foundation for future personal care research to build on. | INTRODUCTIONUntil more recently, the field of sensory science has shown more emphasis in studying food and beverages with a lesser focus on personal care and other nonfood consumer good categories. However, the field is broadening and the industry is supporting it, as referenced in a talk and poster promoting nonfood research at the 2018 Society of Sensory Professionals Conference (Van Haren, Johnson, Grygorczyk, Henley, & Cummings, 2018). This announced the need for more nonfood research regarding different product categories, innovations, and methods (Van Haren et al., 2018) and led to an increase in nonfood research at the 2020 Society of Sensory Professionals Virtual Conference. Personal care is one such category that would benefit from deeper understanding of products and consumer's use experiences as it continues to see year-over-year growth in market potential (Guinaugh, 2020).The personal care space includes many product categories such as skincare, makeup, haircare, oral care, and more, lending itself to a wide range of application methods, use occasions, and purposes.Researchers must consider these differences when choosing the best methods for evaluation. Often, sensory research for these products is proprietary so the amount of available published research is less than that of food and beverage; this can be a challenge when a researcher is unfamiliar with the product category and does not have access to suitable resources. Additionally, sensory research of personal care products, specifically skincare and makeup, tends to focus on the feminine viewpoint. This leads to fewer resources and methods suitable for understudied demographics such as men or those with sensitivities who are often left out of research studies.Appearance, aroma, texture, and skinfeel are common sensory modalities in p...

Affective and behavior‐based research on men's personal care products has not been abundant in published research. As the market for men's personal care products grows, specifically the skin care category, more research is required to better understand this consumer group. Eighteen in‐depth interviews with male consumers ages 18–49 were conducted with light and heavy users in two markets, Olathe, KS and Los Angeles, CA, to understand baseline information on men's perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes related to skin care. Key take‐aways included that men generally appreciate easy, fast skin care routines, use affordable and readily available products, and desire to maintain the look and/or health of their skin. Though some skin care claims can be appealing, many of the men were somewhat skeptical of typical marketing strategies. These findings help to show how brands are succeeding and failing at meeting male consumer expectations of skin care products and demonstrate the need for more exploration into this demographic. Practical Applications The available, published resources on men's skin care, and personal care as a whole, are few and far between. This work provides a qualitative example of personal care research in the men's skin care space. By presenting this primary research on how men talk about and interact with skin care products, sensory scientists will have a baseline understanding of the category before diving into more specific research questions. The manuscript provides a foundation on which future sensory and consumer research can build.