Sensory Features, Liking and Emotions of Consumers towards Classical, Molecular and Note by Note Foods

Abstract

Modern cuisine served at top-end restaurants attempts to attract customers, who increasingly demand new flavor, pleasure and fun. The materials were six dishes prepared using lemon or tomatoes and made in the traditional (classical), molecular and Note by Note (NbN) versions. The study explores sensory characteristics, consumer liking of key attributes, their declared sensations and emotions, as well as consumers' facial expressions responding to the dishes. These objectives were investigated by descriptive quantitative analysis and consumer tests. Tests included a 9-point hedonic scale for degree of liking a dish, Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) for declared sensations and FaceReader for facial expressions. The influence of factors associated with consumer attitudes toward new food and willingness to try the dishes in the future were also determined. It was stated that the product profiles represent different sensory characteristics due to the technology of food production and the ingredients used. The food neophobia and consumer innovativeness had a significant (p ≤ 0.05) effect on liking. The odor-, flavor-, texture- and overall-liking of the NbN dishes were lower than that of traditional versions but did not vary from scores for molecular samples. The expected liking of NbN dishes was higher than experienced-liking. Traditional and modern products differed in CATA terms. Classical dishes were perceived by consumers as more tasty, traditional and typical while modern cuisine dishes were perceived as more surprising, intriguing, innovative and trendy. Mimic expressions assessment by FaceReader showed similar trends in some emotions in both classical dishes and separate temporal patterns in modern products.

Keywords: CATA; classical dishes; consumer research; emotions; molecular and Note by Note products; new product development; sensory profiling.

Figure 1

Plating proposition of: (A) lemon cookie, (B) molecular “lemon cookie”, (C) Note by Note “lemon cookie”, (D) traditional tomato soup, (E) molecular “tomato soup’, (F) Note by Note ‘tomato soup”.

Figure 2

Sensory properties of (A) lemon cookie and (B) tomato soup that are prepared in traditional, molecular and Note by Note versions: a, b, c—mean values marked by different letters in versions of dishes differ significantly at p ≤ 0.05.

Figure 3

Expected and experienced overall liking in relation to dishes: a, b, c—values of expected-liking or experienced-liking that are marked by different lowercase letters between various versions of dishes with the same main ingredients differ significantly at p ≤ 0.05; * asterisk brackets indicate a significant difference between expected and experienced overall liking of the given sample at p ≤ 0.05.

Figure 4

The dishes and term representation in the first and second coordinates of the Correspondence Analysis performed on the frequency of use of attributes by consumers (according to check-all-that-apply).

Figure 5

Real-time mimic expresions intensity towards dishes based on (a,b) lemon and (c,d) tomato: (a)—during entire consumption time of lemon-based dishes; (b)—for the swallowing-related time of lemon-based dishes; (c)—during entire consumption time of tomato-based dishes; (d)—for the swallowing-related time of tomato-based dishes.