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Comparison of self-reported consumer liking with facial expression recognition technique on yoghurt with different protein bases
Thesis Abstract:
Yoghurts are traditionally made with animal-based milk. Consumer trends have led to the production of plant-based alternatives due to health risks and environmental effects. However, these new products generally have lower consumer acceptability due to their inferior sensory characteristics. Many of the sensory tests used to evaluate yoghurts are self-reported which are considered subjective, but bias and imprecise results are possible due to differences in cultural background and past experiences. Biometrics is an emerging method used in sensory evaluation that evaluates human emotions through facial features. The assessment of the autonomic nervous system responses of an individual are more objective than the self-reported tests. The objectives of this study were to assess the liking of dairy yoghurts compared to plant yoghurts using self-reported and biometrics (facial expression recognition) methods and to compare the different methods of sensory evaluation to describe the method which explains the consumer liking. The panelists (n=62) were tasked to evaluate six commercial yoghurts using self-reported test (overall liking and CATA). A video recording during this sampling was analyzed using Affectiva software. The results showed that the protein source of yoghurt does not solely define the participant’s liking. Comparisons of the facial expression recognition and self-reported sensory results provide the same results on the liking of the yoghurt samples. However, the ‘disliked’ samples have a clearer and consistent association of overall liking score and negative emotions between the self-reported and facial expression recognition responses than the ‘liked’ samples. This study shows it is better to use a combination of self-reported and facial expression recognition tests to obtain a clear evaluation of consumer preference for yoghurt.