Development of the best-worst method (BWM) as a novel technique for ranking fruit juice products.

ABSTRACT

This paper reports a coherent method for ranking fruit juice products in the Iranian food industry by the best-worst method by examining the factors affecting product quality. To achieve the aim, a combination of laboratory methods and mathematical calculations was used. The statistical population in this study included samples of products of several food companies (SH, S, P) in Iran. Some factors affecting the quality of fruit juice products including alcohol, sugar, degrees Brix, and pH were considered and several samples of apple and grape juice from different brands were prepared and analyzed. In the first stage, to determine the value of the parameters of each sample was determined by the standard analysis methods. Then, the best-worst method was applied to measure the selection criteria of juice producers, and then the function of linear values of the piece was used to rank the Juice products of the studied companies (SH, S, P). The results showed the following order for the studied brands P-Apple > S-Grape > SH-Apple > SH-Grape > S-Apple. This study showed that the multi-criteria decision theory is a promising method to rank food products of different companies.