The use of correspondence analysis in the study of beef quality: a case study on Parda de Montaña breed

Abstract

The fulfilment of consumer needs is the main concern of the food industry. Sensory studies performed by both trained panellists and consumers play an important role in attaining this goal. Trained panel are required to detect small differences in food properties with accuracy and consistency, whereas the goal in consumer tests is to obtain information on consumer characteristics, attitudes and preferences. Consumer tests are classified according to the place where they are held. AbstractThe present study shows the usefulness of a multivariate technique -correspondence analysis--for simultaneously representing continuous and categorical variables in graphical form. A comparison was made of the results of sensory tests of beef quality performed by a trained panel and by consumers. The latter included the collection of data to produce consumers profiles and the recording of a number of consumers habits. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated independently for the variables measured in both the panel and consumer tests. Two correspondence analyses were then performed: the first one involving the consumer profiles and the values of the variables measured in the consumer test, the second one to determine the relationships between the panel and consumer test scores. In the plot corresponding to the first analysis, the two axes accounted for 52.2% of the inertia and showed that age did not have an important effect on any measured variable. Consumers previous experience has been shown to be an important factor defining consumer liking of the product. In the plot for the second analysis the two axes accounted for 82.3% of the inertia and showed that there was no correspondence between overall consumer liking of the product and any of the panel variables. These results therefore suggest that the panel test is not a good predictor of consumer behaviour.Additional key words: consumer behaviour, multiple correspondence analysis, relationships, sensory, statistics. ResumenEl uso de correspondencias múltiples como herramienta para el estudio de la calidad de la carne de ternera: análisis de un caso utilizando animales de la raza Parda de MontañaEl presente estudio muestra la utilidad de una técnica multivariante, el análisis de correspondencias múltiples, para representar gráficamente de manera conjunta variables categóricas y continuas. Para ello se compararon los resultados obtenidos por un panel entrenado con los resultados dados por un grupo de consumidores, ambos con las mismas muestras de carne de ternera. La prueba de consumidores incluyó el perfil del consumidor y una breve encuesta sobre sus hábitos de consumo. Se calcularon correlaciones de Spearman de manera independiente para las variables utilizadas con el panel entrenado y las variables empleadas en la prueba de consumidores. Se realizaron dos análisis de correspondencias: el primero incluía el perfil del consumidor y los valores de las variables medidas en la prueba de consumidores; el segundo se utilizó para determinar la relación entre las notas dad...

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