D 5.4.1.1. Final Report on sensory testing in Europe for Group 1. Project AFTER “African Food Tradition rEvisited by Research”

In this deliverable the main results of sensory profile of reengineered products from group I are presented. Group I included Akpan and Gowé (Benin), Kenkey (Ghana) and Kishk Sa'eedi (Egypt). In this stage all products were submitted to reengineering process to overcome food safety and product quality issues (identified in the first stage of the project in traditional food) to facilitate their promotion and introduction to EU markets. Although all products were tested in Europe for consumer acceptance, in the case of SENSORY, for Kenkey and Akpan in Europe, the results although not obtained by a trained panel, were generated by Consumers through CATA test. The use of check-all-that-apply (CATA) questions for sensory product characterizations with consumers has been gaining acceptance by several authors (G. Ares and S.R. Jaeger, 2015) and for that we considered an equivalent test to replace the classical descriptive analysis by the trained panel that would take longer time. Due to the restrictions of delayed reengineering processes, we did not have an enough frame time to train adequately the panel. However, the characterisation of product attributes was also achieved. In the case of Gowe, due to restrictions in the productions of reengineered product due to contaminations of raw material, these results for sensory profile could not be obtained, but this was the only case in group I. However, the differences in main attributes were not so far from the traditional ones. In sensory studies of reengineered products, we´ve tried to integrate quantitative characterization of the perceivable product attributes and in consumer studies hedonic profiles (Worch, Lê, and Punter, 2010). So, in the sensory profiling of a specific group of reengineered products, once performed by a trained panel for a specific group of attributes by a specific African or European country panel, it must be considered unique and reproducible for all other panels that can test the product, afterwards. So in our sensory study of Kishk Sa'eedi as it was performed in Africa or Europe by a trained panel performing quantitative and reproducible characterization of the perceivable (Kishk Sa'eedi) attributes, herein will be used the same results for European sensory description of the product. Akpan: In terms of consumer perception of sensory attributes performed in Europe for the three Akpan products did not significantly. If we remove the terms such as “artificial”, “strong in taste”, “floral” due to a manufacturing error (use of a few drops of citronella essential oil instead of citronella infusion as a traditional flavouring of Akpan in Benin), it remains the terms “mealy”, “liquid” “drinking yoghurt” that better describe the product and were previously used for describing traditional Akpan product. This means that sensory properties of traditional Akpan were not totally improved during re-engineering to meet French consumer taste. Kenkey: The results of this study based on CATA testing allowed to provide a basis of understanding on how the reengineered Kenkey (RK) compares to standard commercial Kenkey (SK) in terms of its sensory properties. An interesting finding was that the sensory properties of RK were very different from that of the standard Ga Kenkey (SK): consumers scored differently the new product from the standard one. RK was globally perceived as too weak whilst SK was too strong. RK was perceived as bland and crumbly and SK as sour, salty and fermented. Kishk Sa'eedi (KS) was evaluated by a trained panel by QDA and analysed using QFD and PCA analysis. The results of KS sensory characteristics provide in depth understanding of the sensory quality criteria as perceived by the sensory trained panel. The present study showed that substantial differences in sensory character were noted between the traditional and re-engineered KS in particular, differences in colour, fresh odor, KS taste, fracutability and mouth coating. This work showed that the application of techniques could provide the useful information to KS and helped to identify the importance of product attributes. So in general, it can be observed that sensory properties of reengineered products of Akpan and Kenkey did not differed significantly from traditional ones, however the opposite was observed for the new KS compared to the traditional one. (Résumé d'auteur