Consumer perception of taste and flavor in food products

The understanding of the consumers' thoughts, reasoning and perception of a product can be used in different steps in the product development of different products. This can be used to assess key parameters in the product for taste, mouthfeel, health aspects or origin of the product. This can be used early in the product development to target the important flavors or competitors or in the end to determine whether your product is preferred over the competitors or if some characteristics should be changed.

To find the right taste, flavor, mouthfeel and appearance in your product it is crucial to understand what the consumer expects and wish of the product. To target the consumers' wishes and experience early in the product development the process will be more efficient. 

RISE has many years of experience in different kinds of quantitative and qualitative consumer methods adapted for different parts of the product development process. Methods we offer are among others focus groups studies, projective mapping, CATA/RATA, hedonic tests and preference tests. The consumer tests can be combined with sensory analyses or instrumental measures. 

Our expertise have many years of experience working with food products, pharmaceuticals and hygiene products but the methods are applicable also on other kinds of products.

We offer:

• A large consumer data base with a demographic spread. 
• Food approved preparation kitchen together with a collaboration with a restaurant for larger tastings. 
• Sensory booth for separate tests and larger facilities for quantitative measures.
• Online based software for gathering of data in laboratory settings, home-use tests or special locations such as supermarkets etc. 
• Staff with long experience in both experimental settings as well as focus group leaders. 
• Evaluation of results with suitable statistical analyses.