Sensory Characteristics and Cross‐Cultural Consumer Acceptability of Bulgogi (Korean Traditional Barbecued Beef)

Abstract

The food industry is increasingly interested in ethnic foods that satisfy sophisticated appetite of today's consumers. Korean cuisine is recently gaining popularity and perceived as "adventurous and spicy," appealing to researchers and marketers in the food industry worldwide. However, it is not easy to develop a new product based on ethnic cuisine because nonsensory factors, such as food neophobia and openness to new culture, can evoke adverse responses from the consumers. A systematic sensory approach can guide the product development by identifying both sensory and nonsensory factors affecting consumer acceptability. This study investigated sensory attributes of Bulgogi (Korean traditional barbecued beef), one of the most famous Korean foods, and compared consumer acceptability between Korea and the United States. The outcomes of this study, such as flavor profiles, consumer responses, evaluation procedure, and approaches taken for cross-cultural comparison, will provide the food industries with valuable information that will help to develop effective strategies for commercializing ethnic foods including recipe development for Bulgogi marinades.

Sensory characteristics and cross-cultural acceptability of Chinese and Korean consumers for ready-to-heat (RTH) type bulgogi (Korean traditional barbecued beef)

“…SP-M and N-SP-M also tended to have a higher sweet taste compared to SP, though there was no significance (p>0.05) observed (Table 3). It was reported that an increase in sweetness, saltiness, and soy sauce odor/flavor was found when amounts of soy sauce and sugar levels were increased by 30% each in the study of Hong et al (2) which investigated Korean and US consumers' acceptability of bulgogi with different contents of main ingredients including sugar, soy sauce, and garlic. While the study of Hong et al (2) showed an increase of MSG taste when soy sauce and sugar levels were increased by 30% each, it was not observed in the present study.…”

“…In addition, soy protein was again added to the bulgogi formulation to investigate the effect because the effect was not revealed well in the first phase of the study. Finally, amounts of sugar and soy sauce were changed, since these ingredients were found to affect consumers' liking for bulgogi, not just Korean, but also for non-Korean consumers such as US consumers (2). Sensory characteristics of 6 RTH bulgogi: ANOVA was performed on descriptive analysis data and the result showed significant (p<0.05) differences among bulgogi samples for all sensory attributes (Table 3).…”

“…Bulgogi is made by barbecuing or pan-frying sliced beef that has been marinated using a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, garlic, and sesame oil (6). Formulations of bulgogi can vary (7) based on addition of ground pear or honey (2). Bulgogi is one of the most preferred beef dishes for Koreans, but it is also well accepted by non-Korean people (6).…”

“…Investigations on bulgogi acceptability of foreign consumers have been mostly limited to US consumers (2,6,(10)(11)(12)(13) and not many studies have investigated preferences for bulgogi in other countries, including Asian. Only a few works have investigated bulgogi acceptability of foreigners who reside in Korea (3)(4)(5)8,9,14) and there is no study that examined preference of bulgogi of local people other than US consumers.…”

Sensory characteristics and cross-cultural comparisons of consumer acceptability for Gochujang dressing

“…However, sensory tests focused mainly on hedonic ratings in these studies. Recently, Hong et al (12) investigated cross-cultural acceptance for bulgogi by consumers in Korea and the US using a comprehensive approach that involved a descriptive sensory analysis, hedonic ratings, and JAR ratings. That study showed that the factors affecting consumer liking in each country could be effectively identified by relating a descriptive analysis result to hedonic and JAR ratings.…”