The Crick-Eatery: A Novel Approach to Evaluate Cricket (Acheta domesticus) Powder Replacement in Food Products through Product Eating Experience and Emotional Response.

This study was conducted to evaluate three different food products containing cricket powder for consumer acceptability, emotional response, satiety, and plate waste. US untrained consumers (n = 108), from the San Luis Obispo, CA area, were recruited to evaluate three food products (sausage, pasta, and brownies) as components in a three-course meal that either contain cricket powder (CP) or not (Control). The CP sausage was found to have lower liking scores than the Control for the attributes tested (p < 0.05). The CP pasta was found to be higher in overall liking than the Control (p < 0.05). The CP Brownies were rated highly across the attributes, except for texture and aftertaste (p < 0.05). Though the CP products were found to be as acceptable as the Controls, the use of cricket powder may have affected the texture and flavor profile of both the CP sausage and brownies. The participants selected more positive emotions terms for both the CP and Control products than negative emotions. Negative terms selected, such as worried, decreased once the products were consumed (p < 0.05). Plate waste and subjective satiety may also be indicators of consumer acceptability. Significant correlations were found between appearance liking and satiety as well as taste liking and plate waste for both the Control and CP products/dishes (p < 0.05). Based on this work, future acceptance of insect-based products may be encouraged by evaluating the products throughout an eating experience.

Studying the Emotional Response to Insects Food Products.

Insects have been proposed as a sustainable food solution due to their environmental, nutritional, and socioeconomic value; however, in the western world, insects are viewed as disgusting. This research aimed to understand the acceptance of insect-based products in the US market by studying the emotional response to such. A survey of 826 consumers was conducted using (1) a modified version of the EsSense Profile® questionnaire to capture the emotional response to pictures of different kinds of foods, (2) images to evaluate the influence of the presence or absence of non-visible insects in food products, (3) information about the environmental value of insects, and (4) socioeconomic demographics. Disgust was found as a barrier to product acceptance. Insect food products were positively correlated with the emotions of interest, understanding, daring, adventurous, and worried, and negatively correlated with the emotions satisfied, good, pleasant, happy, calm, warm, nostalgic, and secure. The influence of sustainability-related information on the emotional response to such products is complex and should be carefully considered.

Consumer Likings of Different Miracle Fruit Products on Different Sour Foods.

Miracle fruit has a high potential as a healthy sweetening enhancer, due to its powerful antioxidant capacity and its unique ability to transform sour taste into sweet taste. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of different miracle fruit products on the likings of different sour foods. In total, 200 healthy adults (women 55%, 18-65 years old) evaluated five sour foods (apple, goat cheese, lemonade, yogurt, pickle) before and after miracle fruit application. Four commercial miracle fruit products (pills-Y; G; M, powder-P) were randomly assigned to each panelist. The pre- and post-test likings for overall, flavor, texture, and aftertaste were evaluated by using a nine-point scale. The "meeting expectations" was evaluated only in the post-tests. After miracle fruit administration, all the liking scores in yogurt, goat cheese, and apple increased; in contrast, lemonade and pickle liking scores decreased, except lemonade's texture with the P product. The Tukey post hoc test showed that the pre-to-post increments for overall, flavor, and texture likings in yogurt and in overall and flavor likings in apple using M product were significantly higher than using other products (p < 0.05). This study suggests that miracle fruit application can be an effective method for im-proving consumer likings for yogurt, goat cheese, and apple.

Effects of different miracle fruit products on the sensory characteristics of different types of sour foods by descriptive analysis.

Miracle fruit's potential benefit is encouraging as a powerful antioxidant and sweetness enhancer due to its novel ability to modify sour taste to sweet. However, further studies are needed to evaluate the practicality of different miracle fruit products. Thus, this study aimed to characterize the taste modification effects of different miracle fruit products on different sour foods. For this, 10 trained subjects (80% female, 50% white, Mean ± SE = 27.3 ± 3.9 years old) performed a Quantitative Descriptive Analysis using a Latin Square design with three replications. One session was composed of pre- and posttest for miracle fruit administration. Five food samples (green apple, goat cheese, lemonade, plain fat-free yogurt, and cucumber pickle) and four miracle fruit products (three different brands of miracle fruit pill-Y, G, M and one powder product-P) were used and data were analyzed using analysis of variance and principal component analysis. The typical effects of miracle fruit, sweetness increase and sourness suppression were observed for all food samples albeit to different degrees. Y and M pills were most impactful while powder product was least, and goat cheese and yogurt had the most pronounced impact at increasing sweetness. Prior Miracle Fruit administration significantly decreased bitterness and increased creaminess in yogurt. However, it increased off-flavor in lemonade and pickle. Results suggest that miracle fruit usage for increasing sweetness is effective but the degree of taste-modifying effect differs according to the types of miracle fruit product and food samples applied. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This research confirms miracle fruit's unique taste-modifying abilities and demonstrates a high potential as a sweetness enhancer to benefit human health. The results can be used to optimize miracle fruit's application and can be applied by food industry and health care provider to develop clinical remedies or disease prevention strategies.

Consumer textural food perception over time based on Mouth Behavior.

Food texture assessment is difficult because it is constantly being modified as a food is eaten. While texture has generally been statically assessed, methods aimed at measurement over time are becoming more common. However, even when texture is assessed over time, that assessment is based on averages across all individuals. This study shows that individuals with different Mouth Behaviors eat foods differently in an effort to develop a texture that suits their Mouth Behavior. Because of this, their texture assessments differ over the eating experience. Overall liking was driven by whether individuals were able to transform the product texture into one that aligned with their Mouth Behavior and how well they liked the dominant texture attribute.