Introducing Consumer Immersive Experience in Food Texture workshop
By: Alina Stelick
February 13-15, 2018
In the summer of 2013 Wall Street Journal published a story on the importance of texture in developing new food products. The story highlighted Frito-Lay products and how they were developed to meet the “ideal point” of each of the consumer texture segments they called “chewers,” “crunchers,” “smooshers,” and “suckers.”
The consumer segmentation mentioned above is based on the work by Jackie Beckley and her colleagues at the Understanding & Insights Group (The U&I Group). Jackie is a seasoned consumer/sensory researcher who has been consulting for Food Industry since the 1980s. Over many years of doing research, Jackie and her team noticed that consumers were responding differently to different textures. Some loved the loud crunch of chips, while others preferred chewy brownies to snack on. They also found that a snack developed for the “crunchers” would not “work” for the “chewers.” To share their findings with larger audience, in 2016 the U&I Group published the methodology they have developed on determining consumer “mouth behavior” in Food Quality and Preference.
This February Cornell Sensory Evaluation Center is offering an active-learning workshop, Consumer Immersive Experience: In Food Texture, to highlight the notion of “mouth behavior” and why it is important in product development to a wider industry audience. The attendees will have an opportunity to profile their personal “mouth behavior” using JBMB® Typing Tool, obtain a technical review of the to-date scientific research and learn about its relevance to their organization by observing “live” consumer research and analyzing the discussion under instructor guidance. Solid (chips) and semi-solid (yogurts) model food systems will be discussed. However, the insights would apply across multiple food categories.
If you’re interested in this topic, please consider attending this workshop and register today at
For more information, please contact Alina Stelick at ap262@cornell.edu or visit us at
https://blogs.cornell.edu/sensoryevaluationcenter/workshopslearning/
References:
Chaker, A.M. (2013) Why food companies are fascinated by the way we eat: Texture is almost as important as taste in new products. Wall Street Journal, 08/13/13. Last accessed 01/05/08: https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-food-companies-are-fascinated-by-the-way-we-eat-1376434311
Jeltema, M., Beckley, J., Vahalik, J. (2016) Food texture assessment and preference based on Mouth Behavior. Food Quality and Preference, 52, 160-171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2016.04.010
