Flavor profiling by consumers segmented according to product involvement and food neophobia

The relationship between food-related individual characteristics and performance in sensory evaluation was investigated. The study focused on differences in discriminative ability and perceptual sensitivity according to levels of product involvement or food neophobia during the intensity rating of sensory attributes in consumer profiling. Consumers (N = 247) rated the intensity of attributes for seven flavored black tea drinks and completed the Food Neophobia Scale and the Personal Involvement Inventory measuring product involvement with the flavored black tea drink. In the higher product involvement (IH) group and the lower food neophobia (NL) group, the number of sensory attributes representing the sample effect and of subsets discriminating the samples were greater, and more total variance of the samples was explained. The higher the product involvement or the lower the food neophobia, the greater the differentiation in characterizing samples with more attributes in the intensity ratings. Interestingly, the high food neophobia (NH) group showed less active performance compared to the NL group during the sensory evaluation overall, but the NH group was more concerned about unfamiliar attributes and samples. The results implied that the positive attitude resulting from high product involvement and low food neophobia may induce more active behavior and better performance during the sensory evaluation.