Consumer Acceptance of a Ready-to-Eat Meal during Storage as Evaluated with a Home-Use Test

Abstract

A home-use test (HUT) is one method that provides a measure of ecological validity as the product is consumed in home under common daily use circumstances. One product that benefits from being evaluated in-home are ready-to-eat (RTE) meals. This study determined consumer acceptance of microwave-thermally-pasteurized jambalaya, a multi-meat and vegetable dish from American Cajun cuisine, and a control (cooked frozen jambalaya) through an on-line home-use test (HUT) over a 12-week storage period. Paralleling the HUT, an online auction determined consumers’ willingness to pay. The study also explored how the social environment may impact the liking of the meals when a partner of the participants joined the sensory evaluation of the meals. Consumers (n = 50) evaluated microwave-processed jambalaya stored at 2 °C and a control (cooked frozen jambalaya stored at −31 °C) after 2, 8 and 12 weeks of storage. Consumer liking of different sensory attributes was measured. Participants could choose to share the meals with a partner as a way to enhance ecological validity. The responses from 21 partners to the sensory-related questions were collected. After the sensory evaluation, the participants bid on the meal they had just sampled. Results showed that processing method (microwave vs. control) did not significantly influence the measured sensory attributes. Only flavor liking decreased over storage time (p < 0.05). The inclusion of partners significantly increased (p = 0.04) the liking of the appearance of the meals. The mean values of the bids for the meals ranged from $3.33–3.74, matching prices of commercially available jambalaya meals. This study found suggests that the shelf- life of microwave-processed meals could be extended up to 12 weeks without changing its overall liking. The study also shows the importance of exploring HUT methodology for the evaluation of consumers’ acceptance of microwave-processed jambalaya and how including a partner could contribute to enhance ecological validity.

Older adults’ acceptance of ready‐to‐eat meals in relation to food choice and sensory ability

“…Participants were asked to complete the evaluation of their meal within the following 3 days after receiving the meal. Heating instructions for the meals were provided with each meal (Montero, 2021). Instructions were as follows: (1) With a small knife, punch 5 small holes in the film ( each corner and the middle of the tray ); (2) microwave on high for 3 min; (3) let stand for 1 min inside the microwave; (4) take out of the microwave and carefully cut the edges of the film with a knife; (5) stir carefully with a fork .…”

“…Previous research (Montero et al., 2021) found partner participation significantly influenced the sensory acceptance of the RTE meals by older adults; thus, the effect of partner participation ( n = 33) in this study was evaluated for both sensory and emotional responses. Partner participation was assessed as part of the demographic information collected at the start of the study.…”

“…In the present study, the RTE meals for older adults were developed and processed via microwave‐assisted thermal sterilization (MATS). MATS processing utilizes microwave technology to produce sterilized, safe, shelf‐stable foods (Tang, 2015) and has been employed to create RTE meals in prior studies (Barnett et al., 2019; Montero, 2021; Patel et al., 2019, 2020). Sterilized meals are necessary for older adults given their increased vulnerability to foodborne illness due to their age‐compromised immune systems (Kendall et al., 2006; Weiskopf et al., 2009).…”

Effects of sensory test conditions and cooking methods on consumer acceptance, sensory profiling, and emotional response of home meal replacement foods

“…It is a more appropriate sensory evaluation technique compared with CLT when food preparation is required prior to evaluation. Previous studies have shown that the results of HUT are comparable to those of controlled CLT conditions, and evaluations conducted in a realistic context can provide valuable insights (Montero et al, 2021;Schouteten et al, 2021). For example, a study on ready-to-eat jambalaya found no significant differences between HUT and CLT conditions during a 12-week storage period at home, indicating the feasibility of HUT in capturing consumer perceptions (Montero et al, 2021).…”

Novel Techniques to Measure the Sensory, Emotional, and Physiological Responses of Consumers toward Foods

“…For that reason, new research has been done to understand the effect of environments on sensory perception. Montero et al [7] studied the consumer acceptance of ready-to-eat (RTE) meals during storage using a home-use test (HUT). They concluded that the HUT methodology can enhance the sensory experience of consumers when tasting the products.…”