Assessing effects of attribute presence compared with absence on food-evoked emotions may offer valuable insights for differentiation of competing or otherwise similar products. Affective consumer responses to food products with varying sensory and quality attributes are influenced by several factors including psychographics, demographics, product category, and test design. In this study, a scenario is depicted where product developers can identify critical product features based on emotional assessment of products with and without quality attributes. This study is beneficial to product developers and the egg industry, as it identifies opportunities to better understand consumer needs, thereby, designing products destined for success in the marketplace.

Substantial evidence suggests influence of color, physical state, and other extrinsic features on consumer perception and acceptability of food products. In this study, 560 subjects evaluated liking and emotional responses associated with 5 sweeteners (sucralose, stevia, saccharin, aspartame, and sucrose) under 2 eliciting conditions: control (brand name only) and informed (brand name/packet image), to assess impact of the packet color. For a given condition, 5 identical tea samples each labeled with a sweetener type were rated for sweetness and overall liking (9-point) and emotions (5-point). Nonsignificant interactions between eliciting condition and sweetener type were found for liking attributes and emotions (except peaceful), indicating their independent effects. However, overall differences existed among sweetener types and eliciting conditions based on both hedonic and emotional responses (MANOVA, P < 0.05), suggesting modulating effects of packet color on sweetener type in the sensory-emotion space. The sensory-emotion profile for sucrose was separate from that of nonnutritive sweeteners, with statistically significant Mahalanobis distances among sample centroids. Increases in positive emotion intensities contrasted with a decrease in negative emotion intensities were observed for some sweeteners moving from the control to informed condition. Sweetness liking was strongly correlated with the emotion satisfied (sucralose, saccharin) only in the control condition, whereas it was strongly correlated with the emotions pleased and satisfied (stevia), disgusted (aspartame), and satisfied (sucrose) only in the informed condition. Overall, results suggested that sensory liking and emotions during the consumption experience are related not entirely to the type of sweetener, but also the color of the packet.

Summary Antimicrobial activity of garlic (Allium sativum L.) and holy basil (Ocimum sanctum L.) essential oils (GEO and HBEO, respectively) was evaluated in liquid vs. vapour phases. Diallyl disulphide and diallyl trisulphide in GEO while eugenol, caryophyllene and methyl eugenol in HBEO were predominant active compounds. Individually, GEO was highly effective in the vapour phase, showing the greatest antimicrobial activity (P ≤ 0.05) against Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus with complete inhibition, followed by Salmonella typhimurium and Pseudomonas fluorescens, but had no effect on Escherichia coli, Lactobacillus plantarum or Listeria monocytogenes. The combined GEO:HBEO (a 1:1 ratio) at 30 μL demonstrated inhibitive activity against all bacteria tested with complete inhibition against B. cereus and S. aureus. Minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of the combined oil was <0.4% v/v, except for P. fluorescens requiring a higher MBC (1.5%, v/v). This study demonstrated potential of the combined GEO:HBEO to be used for food preservation applications.

Developing products with reduced sodium content is one alternative for consumers interested in reducing their daily sodium intake. In this research, we determined whether soy sauce odour could induce and enhance salty taste perception in salt solution models. The sensory threshold technique (ASTM E679-04, the ascending forced choice method of limits) was used to determine thresholds at 25°C. Group best estimate threshold geometric means of soy sauce odour were expressed as parts-per-billion (ppb, v/v). At 28.45 ppb (recognition threshold), soy sauce odour could induce salty taste in 0.03 mM NaCl solution (in which salty taste was undetectable without soy sauce odour) and at 122.71 ppb (difference threshold), it enhanced salty taste (i.e. saltier) perception in 20 mM NaCl solution. Through the odour-taste interaction concept, this study demonstrated that the soy sauce odour could induce and enhance salty taste perception, which could be applied in the development of reduced-sodium foods.

Summary Chitosan–pectin hydrogel beads that trap and release the maximal amount of combined garlic and holy basil essential oils to inhibit food microorganisms were developed based on the central composite design, with chitosan (0.2–0.7% w/v), pectin (3.5–5.5% w/v) and calcium chloride (CaCl2) (5.0–20.0% w/v) contents. The optimal bead consisted of 0.3–0.6% w/v chitosan, 3.9–5.1% w/v pectin and 8.0–17.0% w/v CaCl2, which had a high encapsulation efficiency (62.16–79.06%) and high cumulative release efficiency (31.55–37.81%) after storage at 5 °C for 15 days. Optimal hydrogel beads were packed into a cellulose bag to evaluate antimicrobial activity by the disc volatilisation method. The beads inhibited Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus but did not affect Lactobacillus plantarum and Salmonella Typhimurium. The oil‐containing beads could potentially be applied in food packaging to inhibit the mentioned microorganisms.

The optimum formulation for mayonnaise-type spreads containing rice bran oil (RBO) and soy protein concentrate (SPC) was determined based on sensory acceptability. RBO and SPC were used due to their health benefit claims such as lowering risk of heart disease. The effects of the proportions of high-impact ingredients (RBO, SPC, and water) on sensory acceptability of the spreads were determined. The 10 spread formulations, prepared following a 3-component constrained simplex lattice mixture design, were subjected to a consumer acceptance test to identify sensory attributes driving consumer acceptance and purchase intent. Predictive regression models were used to plot mixture response surfaces of the critical sensory attributes (taste, mouthfeel, and overall liking) that influenced purchase intent. Areas within the contour plots of these critical sensory attributes, having acceptability scores > or = 68 ("moderately like" on the 100-mm bidirectional labeled affective magnitude scale) were chosen and superimposed to obtain a predicted optimum formulation range (37% to 43% RBO, 4% to 7% SPC, and 52% to 57% water). The formulation containing 37% RBO, 6% SPC, and 57% water, which was located within the optimum region, was selected as a base for further developing flavored (sour cream & onion, cheddar & sour cream, or Monterrey Jack dried cheese) products. All flavored spreads were significantly more acceptable than the plain formulation. Purchase intent of all flavored products also significantly increased once consumers had been given the information about potential health benefits associated with RBO and SPC in the spreads.

The three-components mixture design was applied to optimise a ratio of NaCl (0%-65%), KCl (35%-100%) and glycine (0%-20%) in reduced-sodium frankfurters. Fourteen frankfurters were analysed for texture and colour, and consumer (n = 100) acceptability. Results indicated that NaCl levels affected consumer acceptability of reduced-sodium frankfurters. Increasing NaCl generally increased texture hardness. Optimisation of a salt mixture was performed by superimposing contour plots of predicted acceptability scores (≥5.5 on a 9-points hedonic scale) of all sensory attributes and revealed the optimal salt mixture: 40.03%-63.66% NaCl, 35.00%-55.90% KCl and 0.00%-20.00% glycine. The optimal salt mixture contained 220-340 mg Na/100g frankfurter compared with 540 mg Na/100 g of the control formulation (100% NaCl). The mean overall liking score (5.9 vs. 5.9) of the optimal reduced-sodium frankfurter was not different from the control (100% NaCl). This optimal formulation had >25% sodium reduction and could be claimed as 'reduced-sodium' according to US Food and Drugs Administration regulation.

Summary Odour‐induced saltiness enhancement (OISE) method can be used to reduce salt in food. This study was performed to examine the effect of OISE on saltiness perception of oil roasted peanuts seasoned with foam‐mat salt. First, 410 consumers rated saltiness intensity elicited by odour names of fifty‐seven food/ingredient items. Soy sauce odour name was among from the top five items with higher saltiness intensities, hence it was selected to further investigate the effect of saltiness enhancement in conjunction with foam‐mat salt. The control (commercial salt, 100%), CS50 (commercial salt:soy sauce odour; 50:50) or FS50 (foam‐mat salt:soy sauce odour; 50:50) was mixed with roasted peanuts, which were subsequently evaluated by a descriptive panel for saltiness intensity and by consumers for sensory acceptance. OISE in conjunction with foam‐mat salt produced FS50 roasted peanuts, having 10 mg of sodium per 100 g sample less than CS50 but being as acceptable as the control.