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Editorial overview: Sensory science and consumer perception
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ScienceDirect Editorial overview: Sensory science and consumer perception Herbert L Meiselman Current Opinion in Food Science 2017, 15:v–vii For a complete overview see the Issue Available online 15th July 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cofs.2017.07.002 2214-7993/ã 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Herbert L Meiselman
Herb Meiselman Training and Consulting, Rockport, MA 01766, USA Herbert L Meiselman is an internationally known expert in sensory and consumer research, product development, and food service. He received his training in Psychology and Biology at the University of Chicago, University of Massachusetts, and Cornell University. He retired as Senior Research Scientist at Natick Laboratories where he was the highest-ranking Research Psychologist in the U.S. government. His accomplishments were recognized with a 2005 Award from the President of the United States. He has served in Editorial roles for Food Quality and Preference, Journal of Foodservice, and Appetite. He was CoChairman of the 2003 Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, the largest international sensory and consumer research meeting; he serves on the executive Committee of the Pangborn Symposia. His current research interests include context/environment, emotion, wellness, and psychographics. He edited a large volume on Emotion Measurement in 2016, combining both academic and applied material. He is the author of over 180 research papers and 4 books. He is the President of the Research Committee of the Institut Paul Bocuse, Lyon, France, and has worked with the Research Committee for the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York, and the food service program at Orebro University, Sweden. He has served as Visiting Professor
www.sciencedirect.com
It is a daunting challenge to review the current state of the art in food science, focusing on sensory and consumer science. What should one include? What should one emphasize? One can examine the excellent reviews published in 2015 and 2016; the 2015 reviews presented a broad perspective focusing on food choice and food consumption, and the 2016 reviews emphasized the instrumental techniques to study oral processing. The goal of the 2017 reviews is to look at the broad range of sensory and consumer research, from basic chemical senses physiology and scaling, to the sensometric analysis of sensory and consumer data, to the context of consumer studies and the special context of dining, and the very broad issue of cross cultural issues. The reader will observe some overlap in topics between this 2017 review, and the earlier reviews, especially on the topics of temporal assessment, the elderly, and context — perhaps this is a clue to what is receiving extra attention in sensory and consumer science. Claire Murphy and Rochelle Vertrees describe the challenges in dealing with the sensory responses of the elderly population, the fastest growing part of the population world-wide. While there has been research on sensation and perception in the elderly, most of the work has focused on the young-old (ages 65–74) rather than the old–old (75–84) or the oldest-old (ages 85+). Murphy and Vertrees describe the newer neuroimaging tools to uncover neural components involved in both the (sensory) perception of food, and the consumption of food and its reward value. Perhaps no other topic is so central to sensory and consumer science than hedonic scaling. Some of the earliest papers in the field dealt with this topic, and today there is still discussion of the dependence of the field on hedonic scaling. Armand Cardello’s article on hedonic scaling addresses whether hedonic scaling is bi-polar (like-dislike). Cardello also reviews the contextual variables in hedonic scaling with detailed consideration of how questions are presented. A separate article by Jaeger and Porcherot on context method considerations also appears in this issue. Sara Jaeger and Christelle Porcherot review contextual methods for consumer product research. They emphasize the role of appropriateness, and they discuss the balance of the ecological validity of locations versus the control of the central location test (CLT). They review a number of different methods for studying context: appropriateness of product use, item-by-use method, non-CLT settings (incl. natural eating locations, field tests and home-use-tests), contextualized central location tests, evoked consumption contexts, immersive settings and virtual reality. Current Opinion in Food Science 2017, 15:v–vii
vi Sensory Science and Consumer Perception
at Bournemouth University, UK; Reading University, UK; and Orebro University, Sweden; he is currently an Adjunct Visiting Professor at Charles Sturt University, Australia. He has lectured extensively in Europe, North, Central and South America, Asia and Australia/New Zealand.
Pascal Schlich reviews the status of Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS). Interestingly, the temporal aspect of sensation and consumer perception was also addressed in an earlier COFS series on Sensory Science and Consumer Perception (2015). This underscores that sensory and consumer science is increasingly looking at the unfolding of consumer sensation and perception over time, rather than in a momentary glimpse. Schlich describes Temporal Dominance of Sensation as lying between the static evaluation of profiling and the temporal evaluation of Time-intensity measurement. TDS does this by simultaneously assessing several attributes dynamically over time, and Schlich emphasizes that the underlying basis for doing this is the switch from stimulus intensities to stimulus dominances. Schlich describes extension of TDS from sensations to liking, wanting, satiation and emotion. El Mostafa Qannari reviews current progress in the field of sensometrics. He reviews the current state of the art in the following topics; discrimination testing and sensory profiling, preference mapping, consumer segmentation (using latent class analysis, LCA), and three rapid procedures (Check All That Apply (CATA) questions, Free sorting task and projective mapping also called Napping1), and temporal assessment of products. The temporal topic is also addressed by Pascal Schlich in this issue, and was reviewed in an earlier review. Qannari provides an interesting perspective on future developments in sensometrics, noting the relative youth of the field. He notes that there is a tendency to apply complex statistical methods, perhaps with newer user-friendly software. But he recommends that new methods of data collection and data analysis be validated by information about the consumer, and how the consumer makes judgments. Agnes Giboreau argues that sensory and consumer scientists should work with culinary experts in food service and gastronomy both to achieve better food products and to achieve improved methodology. Giboreau focuses culinary research on the meal experience, a view taken by researchers who study the context in which food is consumed. Giboreau focuses her paper on semantics and the study of the meaning of specific foods within a food culture, how chefs use multisensory perception to design dishes and meals, and the use of linguistics in labeling dishes on a menu. Giboreau ends her paper with a call for a more integrated contextual environment for studying food, including the physical, the social and mental, and the food and drink (the products). Hye-Seong Lee and Kannapon Lopetcharat note that a good operational definition of culture is not clear in the current state of cross-cultural sensory and consumer research. They argue that different aspects of culture need to be focused according to the question of what is the objective of the research. They broadly discuss the three goals of cross cultural sensory and consumer research: Firstly, to understand a phenomenon within a cultural group, including the acceptability of ethnic or culture-specific food products in their home culture and in foreign cultures; secondly, to investigate what are perceived differently across cultures, including both sensory differences and differences in measures like emotion and wellness; and thirdly, to test the applicability of research methods across cultures and to develop methodologies that have pan human validity. They note that research conducted by global product companies is usually not available. They argue that to study the cultural effects on product testing, contextual factors need to be incorporated into the test methods, and the design needs to employ more meaningful indices to define culture beyond current convenient proxies. And they also note the impact of internet testing on cross cultural research.
Current Opinion in Food Science 2017, 15:v–vii
www.sciencedirect.com
Editorial overview Meiselman vii
This review of the Current State of the Art of Sensory Science and Consumer Perception presents a very broad view of key issues being addressed in the field. These issues go all of the way from basic considerations of neurophysiology and hedonic scaling, to
www.sciencedirect.com
sensometric approaches to sensory and consumer data, to more applied issues of context including culinary context and the temporal nature of sensory events, to the very broad topic of cross cultural issues and methods.
Current Opinion in Food Science 2017, 15:v–vii
ScienceDirect Editorial overview: Sensory science and consumer perception Herbert L Meiselman Current Opinion in Food Science 2017, 15:v–vii For a complete overview see the Issue Available online 15th July 2017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cofs.2017.07.002 2214-7993/ã 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Herbert L Meiselman
Herb Meiselman Training and Consulting, Rockport, MA 01766, USA Herbert L Meiselman is an internationally known expert in sensory and consumer research, product development, and food service. He received his training in Psychology and Biology at the University of Chicago, University of Massachusetts, and Cornell University. He retired as Senior Research Scientist at Natick Laboratories where he was the highest-ranking Research Psychologist in the U.S. government. His accomplishments were recognized with a 2005 Award from the President of the United States. He has served in Editorial roles for Food Quality and Preference, Journal of Foodservice, and Appetite. He was CoChairman of the 2003 Pangborn Sensory Science Symposium, the largest international sensory and consumer research meeting; he serves on the executive Committee of the Pangborn Symposia. His current research interests include context/environment, emotion, wellness, and psychographics. He edited a large volume on Emotion Measurement in 2016, combining both academic and applied material. He is the author of over 180 research papers and 4 books. He is the President of the Research Committee of the Institut Paul Bocuse, Lyon, France, and has worked with the Research Committee for the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, New York, and the food service program at Orebro University, Sweden. He has served as Visiting Professor
www.sciencedirect.com
It is a daunting challenge to review the current state of the art in food science, focusing on sensory and consumer science. What should one include? What should one emphasize? One can examine the excellent reviews published in 2015 and 2016; the 2015 reviews presented a broad perspective focusing on food choice and food consumption, and the 2016 reviews emphasized the instrumental techniques to study oral processing. The goal of the 2017 reviews is to look at the broad range of sensory and consumer research, from basic chemical senses physiology and scaling, to the sensometric analysis of sensory and consumer data, to the context of consumer studies and the special context of dining, and the very broad issue of cross cultural issues. The reader will observe some overlap in topics between this 2017 review, and the earlier reviews, especially on the topics of temporal assessment, the elderly, and context — perhaps this is a clue to what is receiving extra attention in sensory and consumer science. Claire Murphy and Rochelle Vertrees describe the challenges in dealing with the sensory responses of the elderly population, the fastest growing part of the population world-wide. While there has been research on sensation and perception in the elderly, most of the work has focused on the young-old (ages 65–74) rather than the old–old (75–84) or the oldest-old (ages 85+). Murphy and Vertrees describe the newer neuroimaging tools to uncover neural components involved in both the (sensory) perception of food, and the consumption of food and its reward value. Perhaps no other topic is so central to sensory and consumer science than hedonic scaling. Some of the earliest papers in the field dealt with this topic, and today there is still discussion of the dependence of the field on hedonic scaling. Armand Cardello’s article on hedonic scaling addresses whether hedonic scaling is bi-polar (like-dislike). Cardello also reviews the contextual variables in hedonic scaling with detailed consideration of how questions are presented. A separate article by Jaeger and Porcherot on context method considerations also appears in this issue. Sara Jaeger and Christelle Porcherot review contextual methods for consumer product research. They emphasize the role of appropriateness, and they discuss the balance of the ecological validity of locations versus the control of the central location test (CLT). They review a number of different methods for studying context: appropriateness of product use, item-by-use method, non-CLT settings (incl. natural eating locations, field tests and home-use-tests), contextualized central location tests, evoked consumption contexts, immersive settings and virtual reality. Current Opinion in Food Science 2017, 15:v–vii
vi Sensory Science and Consumer Perception
at Bournemouth University, UK; Reading University, UK; and Orebro University, Sweden; he is currently an Adjunct Visiting Professor at Charles Sturt University, Australia. He has lectured extensively in Europe, North, Central and South America, Asia and Australia/New Zealand.
Pascal Schlich reviews the status of Temporal Dominance of Sensations (TDS). Interestingly, the temporal aspect of sensation and consumer perception was also addressed in an earlier COFS series on Sensory Science and Consumer Perception (2015). This underscores that sensory and consumer science is increasingly looking at the unfolding of consumer sensation and perception over time, rather than in a momentary glimpse. Schlich describes Temporal Dominance of Sensation as lying between the static evaluation of profiling and the temporal evaluation of Time-intensity measurement. TDS does this by simultaneously assessing several attributes dynamically over time, and Schlich emphasizes that the underlying basis for doing this is the switch from stimulus intensities to stimulus dominances. Schlich describes extension of TDS from sensations to liking, wanting, satiation and emotion. El Mostafa Qannari reviews current progress in the field of sensometrics. He reviews the current state of the art in the following topics; discrimination testing and sensory profiling, preference mapping, consumer segmentation (using latent class analysis, LCA), and three rapid procedures (Check All That Apply (CATA) questions, Free sorting task and projective mapping also called Napping1), and temporal assessment of products. The temporal topic is also addressed by Pascal Schlich in this issue, and was reviewed in an earlier review. Qannari provides an interesting perspective on future developments in sensometrics, noting the relative youth of the field. He notes that there is a tendency to apply complex statistical methods, perhaps with newer user-friendly software. But he recommends that new methods of data collection and data analysis be validated by information about the consumer, and how the consumer makes judgments. Agnes Giboreau argues that sensory and consumer scientists should work with culinary experts in food service and gastronomy both to achieve better food products and to achieve improved methodology. Giboreau focuses culinary research on the meal experience, a view taken by researchers who study the context in which food is consumed. Giboreau focuses her paper on semantics and the study of the meaning of specific foods within a food culture, how chefs use multisensory perception to design dishes and meals, and the use of linguistics in labeling dishes on a menu. Giboreau ends her paper with a call for a more integrated contextual environment for studying food, including the physical, the social and mental, and the food and drink (the products). Hye-Seong Lee and Kannapon Lopetcharat note that a good operational definition of culture is not clear in the current state of cross-cultural sensory and consumer research. They argue that different aspects of culture need to be focused according to the question of what is the objective of the research. They broadly discuss the three goals of cross cultural sensory and consumer research: Firstly, to understand a phenomenon within a cultural group, including the acceptability of ethnic or culture-specific food products in their home culture and in foreign cultures; secondly, to investigate what are perceived differently across cultures, including both sensory differences and differences in measures like emotion and wellness; and thirdly, to test the applicability of research methods across cultures and to develop methodologies that have pan human validity. They note that research conducted by global product companies is usually not available. They argue that to study the cultural effects on product testing, contextual factors need to be incorporated into the test methods, and the design needs to employ more meaningful indices to define culture beyond current convenient proxies. And they also note the impact of internet testing on cross cultural research.
Current Opinion in Food Science 2017, 15:v–vii
www.sciencedirect.com
Editorial overview Meiselman vii
This review of the Current State of the Art of Sensory Science and Consumer Perception presents a very broad view of key issues being addressed in the field. These issues go all of the way from basic considerations of neurophysiology and hedonic scaling, to
www.sciencedirect.com
sensometric approaches to sensory and consumer data, to more applied issues of context including culinary context and the temporal nature of sensory events, to the very broad topic of cross cultural issues and methods.
Current Opinion in Food Science 2017, 15:v–vii