Sensory characteristics of different cod products related to consumer preferences and attitudes

Quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA) was used to analyse the sensory quality of eight cod products, different with regard to origin (wild/farmed), storage time (short/extended) and storage method (fresh/frozen/packed in modified atmosphere). At the same time, 378 consumers in four European countries tasted and scored the cod products on a 9-point hedonic scale. In addition information on the consumers attitudes, motives/barriers and fish purchase behaviour was collected. The aim was to investigate how sensory quality corresponded to consumers liking of different cod products and to study the liking in terms of different consumer attitudes and demographics. The QDA discriminated well between the products. The farmed cod products were considerably different from wild cod, with more light and even colour, meaty texture, odour and flavour. Country differences were considerable with regard to fish consumption, attitudes and preferences of the eight cod products. However, it was demonstrated that within each country, different segments of consumers existed with different preferences, motives/barriers and demographic background. The results indicated various potential to increase fish consumption.