History of food acceptance research in the US Army

Abstract

The history of food acceptance research by the US Army in Chicago and Natick is reviewed. The review covers the staff of the two research centers, the research programs, and the significant accomplishments of the Army laboratories from the 1940s to the present. Accomplishments begin with the development of the nine-point hedonic scale, and the development of the first Food Acceptance Laboratory. Further accomplishments include studies of sensory psychophysics, food preferences, food choice and food intake. The laboratories designed methods and conducted research on the role of consumer variables in the acceptance of food products and food service systems. Recent work has focused on new scaling approaches, the role of contextual factors and the importance of product expectations. Throughout the period of the review, the Army research has examined the relationship of laboratory acceptance to field acceptance, and the relationship of acceptance to intake. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Regional food dishes in the Brazilian National School Food Program: Acceptability and nutritional composition

“…In this context, the present study shows the correlation between the test (5-point facial hedonic scale) and the fact (leftover analysis). Therefore, leftover analysis also proved to be an effective method for assessing the acceptability of children to the regional dishes served, although this does not have a hedonic nature, as it has been previously observed by Meiselman & Schutz 33 . The use of an ingestion test to predict the acceptability of a meal showed a positive, highly significant, correlation (p<0.001) for salads, pizza and tea.…”

Sensory Science

“…Much of the early cross-fertilization between sensory analysis and experimental psychology can be traced to the Behavioral Sciences Division at the US Army's Natick Laboratories under the leadership of Dr. Harry L. Jacobs (Meiselman and Schutz, 2003;Moskowitz, 2004). These laboratories have produced many of today's leading scientists in both basic and applied sensory research.…”

“…A recent example of this collaborative approach is the application of modern psychophysical scaling methods, together with flavor chemistry and plant genetics to optimize tomato flavor (Tieman et al, 2012). For additional discussions of how psychophysical thinking has helped to move sensory analysis from a set of measurement tools toward a mature discipline of study, the interested reader is referred to several reviews (Meiselman and Schutz, 2003;Moskowitz, 1993Moskowitz, , 2003a.…”

Foodservice perspective in institutions

“…However, considerable research has been invested to develop acceptable individually packaged military ration packs (combat rations) which can be used when mission or tactical operational reasons prevent group feeding (Rock et al, 1998), and to examine the factors influencing food acceptance (Meiselman and Schutz, 2003). Rules of field feeding often forbid consumption of locally procured food, to ensure safety (USARIEM, 2006).…”