Physicochemical and sensory properties of protein-fortified cookies according to the ratio of isolated soy protein to whey protein.

A high-protein diet has a variety of beneficial effects and mixing isolated soybean protein (ISP) with whey protein (WP) reported to increases health and functional advantages. The objective of this study was to determine an adequate ratio for mixing these two proteins by evaluating the physical and sensory properties of protein-fortified samples. Samples with 5 different ratios of ISP to WP ranging from 100:0 to 0:100 were prepared. Proximate composition, density, spread factor, hardness and color values of five samples were measured and consumer acceptance test were conducted by 117 panelists to evaluate physicochemical and sensory properties of protein-fortified cookies. In a consumer acceptance test, the combination of ISP and WP increased consumer acceptance, and the highest overall acceptance was obtained when ISP and WP were used in a one to one ratio. As the ISP content increased, the density was higher, and the spreadability was the lowest. On the other hand, as WP increased, hardness increased significantly, and L*, a* and b* values increased (p < 0.05).The result of this study may facilitate the development of protein-enriched foods, which have various health benefits.

Emotions Evoked by Colors and Health Functionality Information of Colored Rice: A Cross-Cultural Study.

This study aimed to examine the emotional responses evoked by cooked colored rice and its health functionality information in both consumers who eat rice as a staple food and consumers who do not eat rice as a staple food. Specifically, Korean and American consumers were exposed to colored rice and its health functionality information and an emotion lexicon was generated and measured based on focus group interviews (FGI) and two online consumer surveys. In test 1, the emotions evoked by presentation of stimuli to Koreans (N = 10) and Americans (N = 10) were extracted through FGIs and the first online consumer survey (Koreans = 69; Americans = 68) and an emotion lexicon was generated. As a result, a total of 34 terms were confirmed. Test 2 was conducted during the second online consumer survey (capturing data from a total of 208 Koreans and 208 Americans), utilizing the terms generated in test 1. In this test, only the colors (CO) of colored rice were presented to one group, while colors and health functionality information (CO&H) were presented to the other group. The overall liking for stimuli in both countries was highly correlated with familiarity. Koreans showed significantly more familiarity and liking for CO of white and black CO rice, while Americans showed significantly more familiarity and liking for CO of white and yellow rice. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed to categorize the emotion terms, and the emotion terms were sorted into the three clusters, "Positive", "Negative", and "New", for both countries. Under informed conditions, the emotions became more positive, and emotions in the "New" cluster were evoked in both countries. The current study employed a cross-cultural approach to assess consumers' emotional responses to colored rice and health functionality information. Our findings suggest that providing foods with preferred colors for each culture and providing sufficient information on the said foods will help to promote unfamiliar foods.

Development of a tool for food literacy assessment for young adults: Findings from a Korean validation study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is little research on the development and validation of measurement tools to evaluate integrative concepts of food literacy; however, this is a growing research area. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A food literacy measurement tool for young Korean adults was developed in three phases: (1) tool development and content validation using the Delphi method (2) pilot testing (n=108) and (3) confirmatory study (n=435) and internal consistency using Cronbach's α and the test-retest for reliability. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Feedback from the Delphi rounds resulted in modification and rewording of nine items, yielding 105 items with acceptable content validity ratio (CVR). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed an eight-factor construct: food and nutrition knowledge, food safety, food systems, sociocultural context, food skill, food choice, self-efficacy, and food resource management. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the validated tool met the acceptable indices of basic psychometric standards, and internal consistency was satisfactory for all subscales (Cronbach's α >0.70). CONCLUSIONS: A validated food literacy assessment tool for young Korean adults was developed.