Time–intensity analysis was applied for sweet and sour tastes and strawberry flavor of six commercial brands of strawberry jam. For this test, 11 subjects, between 25 and 35 years old, were selected from an initial 12-member group. An affective test, with 117 consumers was also carried out and the results were analyzed by internal preference mapping.
The least accepted samples were the ones with the lowest sweetness intensity, indicating that jam consumers prefer sweeter products. Also, one of them presented a higher sourness intensity, which may have had a negative influence on its acceptance. It is important to point out the fact that those least accepted samples were the low-calorie products.
The internal preference mapping and cluster analysis showed two consumer clusters. The first one was a higher concentration of consumers toward traditional samples, and the second one showed a lower concentration of consumers in the direction of one of the low-calorie samples.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Time–intensity analysis is used in order to obtain the temporal profile of an attribute in a certain product. This technique is different from the conventional descriptive analysis because it allows the verification of changes in the perception of a product's attribute over time. Consumer preference responses are usually heterogeneous, and averaged consumer data may not be representative of any individual opinion. Thus, the awareness of interindividual differences in preference behavior gave rise to an increasing popularity of consumer segmentation. In this case, a preference map is applied. Observing both descriptive and affective data at the same time, it is possible to determine which attributes have influenced the consumer's preference.