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