Sensory properties, consumer liking and choice determinants of Lucanian dry cured sausages

• The main determinants of dry sausage choice included taste and lack of preservatives.
• The main driver of consumer liking for dry sausage was taste.
• Preservative use did not change consumer overall and taste liking for dry sausages.
• Preservatives should not be used in dry sausage processing.

Based on a food choice questionnaire we identified as the most influential aspects affecting consumer choice of Lucanian dry cured sausages: taste, animal health and addition of preservatives. Therefore, as a second step we conducted a study to assess the effect of preservative addition on sausage sensory properties and consumer liking, with a particular emphasis on taste. The addition of preservatives did not change the perception of taste attributes by an experienced panel, whereas differences were detected in terms of odor, texture and color attributes. However, consumers did not express a preference for a particular product in terms of overall liking, taste/flavor liking and texture liking, whereas appearance liking was higher for sausages containing preservatives. Since sausage taste was unaffected by the addition of preservative, in order to prevent the potentially detrimental effect of a label indicating their presence, producers should make an effort to obtain high quality Lucanian dry cured sausages without using them.