Use of an open-ended question to identify drivers of liking of milk desserts. Comparison with preference mapping techniques

In the present study the use of an open-ended question to identify drivers of liking of milk desserts was evaluated. Eight samples of vanilla milk desserts were presented to 80 consumers, who were asked to score their overall liking using a 9-point hedonic scale and to provide up to four words to describe each of the samples. Also, the samples were evaluated by a panel of trained assessors. Consumers’ descriptions of the samples were mainly related to hedonic and sensory characteristics of the milk desserts. The elicited terms provided information about which are the attributes that drive consumers’ preferences using their own language. Multiple factor analysis was used to obtain a synthetic map of the samples based on consumers’ descriptions, sensory data and overall liking scores. This methodology could be an interesting technique to select the most relevant attributes for consumers and to study the relationship between sensory data and consumers descriptions.